[A-List] UK labour militancy & public order

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Joint forces effort to man the pumps
Army, navy, RAF, police, and senior fire chiefs prepare to step into the
breach, writes KEITH SINCLAIR
The Herald, 13 November 2002

A NATIONWIDE army of about 20,000 military personnel, backed by police and
senior fire officers, will step into the breach on the stroke of 6pm today
when the country's first national firefighters' strike in 25 years is due to
begin.

Armed with outdated green goddesses instead of the £250,000 state-of-the-art
fire engines used by the fire brigade, they will attend fires, road traffic
accidents, and other emergencies in a bid to save lives and prevent damage
to property.

With the majority of Britain's 50,000 trained firefighters likely to be out
of action it will be down to the police, leading fire officers, and the
army, navy and RAF personnel to man the emergency control rooms, allocate
limited resources and tackle the blazes.

The contingency plan, drawn up by the government and the Ministry of Defence
and code-named Operation Fresco, will involve more than 19,000 armed forces
personnel throughout Britain, including about 1300 in Scotland.

The military in Scotland - which will be commanded during the strike by
Brigadier Andrew Jackson, the commander of the army's 51 (Scottish) Brigade,
based in Stirling - will try to do the work of the 6500 full-time Scottish
firemen taking industrial action.

But they will have just 107 green goddesses, from a total of 827 available
throughout Britain, compared with the 623 fire engines usually deployed by
Scotland's eight fire brigades.

Every rank below assistant chief fire officer is represented by the unions,
meaning the strike will obliterate the standard chain of command during
Operation Fresco. Instead, chief and deputy chief fire officers will roll up
their sleeves and return to the "shop floor" of firefighting.

With just 58 chief fire officers and 142 assistants across the UK and a
fraction of normal resources at their disposal, the strike is going to call
on every aspect of their experience.

Police personnel will step into the fold and man the control centres, in
Scotland probably at the headquarters of the eight police forces, and handle
999 fire calls.

Senior fire officers will run activities either from their own brigade's
control rooms or from joint emergency service control rooms.

With limited resources available, it will be the job of senior officers to
assess priority on calls coming in and allocate accordingly.

All they will have available will be the service personnel in the green
goddesses, back-up military teams, and any fire-fighters not taking part in
the action.

All 999 calls will be redirected automatically to the relevant control room
in each region, so there will appear to be no difference for a member of the
public calling.

Police will also accompany each green goddess and military support vehicle
and it will be their communications system that will link incident scenes to
the control rooms.

Hindered by lack of room, the green goddesses are unable to transport the
four sets of specialist breathing apparatus found in modern engines and do
not carry cutting equipment used to free people trapped in road or train
accidents.

Hitting a top speed of only 35mph - half that of today's fire engines - the
vehicles have no radio, while their water capacity is 300 gallons, far less
than the 500 gallons capacity in modern fire engines - meaning operators
will have less time before they start running out of water and have to
connect to hydrants.

There are just two seats for a driver and another crew member - the others
sit on a forward-facing wooden bench at the back of the cab.

While today's vehicles have specialist high-rise equipment with 150ft aerial
platform turntables and five ladders with a reach of 45ft, the green
goddesses have only one ladder with a 35ft reach, which is incapable of
reaching any height above the second floor of a house or office.

They also do not contain in-line foam equipment used for vehicle fires.

Military support vehicles such as breathing apparatus rescue tenders, which
carry breathing apparatus and light hydraulic cutting equipment that are not
available on the green goddesses, will be deployed as back-up where
necessary.

Regional equipment support teams will also use military vehicles to carry
heavy cutting and lifting equipment and chemical protection suits to augment
the response to the most serious incidents.

Both sets of three-man teams operating these vehicles will be given police
escorts to emergencies. To provide extra cover, ambulance personnel will
also be equipped with crowbars and hacksaws for lightly damaged vehicles.

Some military personnel have been trained as firefighters but the government
has warned that strikes would put lives at risk and said soldiers would only
be able to provide a very basic level of fire protection, well beneath what
firefighters generally provide.

During the firefighters' action, the army will provide the replacement
emergency services in Strathclyde, Lothian and Borders, and Dumfries and
Galloway.

The navy will look after Fife and Central Scotland, and the RAF forces will
look after the Highlands, Grampian, and Tayside.

The green goddesses in Scotland will be based at premises such as
Territorial Army centres, police stations, and Ministry of Defence bases,
which allow them to be kept in secure conditions but, where possible, will
be spread throughout a region to help to reduce emergency response times.

In Glasgow, these might include TA centres in Crow Road and Maryhill while
Redford barracks in the south of Edinburgh could also be used.

Last night one of the green goddesses based at Redford broke down seconds
after leaving the barracks.

The ageing truck spluttered to a halt just yards outside the gates of the
barracks and brought the already busy rush hour traffic to a standstill.

Motorists honked their horns in frustration as soldiers tried to restart the
50-year-old truck using a hand crank. When this failed they called in an
army mechanic.

After he had replaced the battery and other spare parts, the goddess's
engine finally shuddered into life, but not before furious motorists had got
out of their cars to vent their frustration.

Strathclyde, Scotland's most populous area, which usually has 200 fire
engines at the disposal of firefighters, will have 46 green goddesses.

Highlands and Islands, which has 133 fire engines due to its huge land mass,
will have just five green goddesses during the strike action, including one
in Stornoway in the Western Isles.