Savage cuts to firefighter numbers must be reversed to cope with future emergencies, union warns

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said officers were struggling to cope with the increased pressures during the coronavirus crisis.

It comes as a study revealed the nation had lost 11,000 firefighters since 2010, with Hampshire’s force having shrunk by 12 per cent.

The combined threats of climate change change-related events like floods and wildfires, and the post-Grenfell building safety crisis will require immediate funding for at least 5,000 additional firefighters in the next year, the FBU claimed.

Without additional crews, the public faces a ‘roll of the dice’ every time a major incident occurs, chief said.

Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: ‘Be it mass flooding and wildfires caused by climate change, huge post-Grenfell building safety challenges, terrorist attacks or pandemics, firefighters are an all-hazards emergency service on the front line protecting the UK from the vast majority of major threats.

‘But a decade of devastating cuts means that we can only effectively handle one of these crises at a time.

‘The brutal reality is that, if and when mass-flooding or another major emergency hits this winter, it could impact firefighters’ ability to aid the pandemic response or respond to another major incident.

‘Increasingly, each time one of these major emergencies break out, the public face a roll of the dice, hoping that more than one won’t come at once – and it’s only a matter of time until we lose that gamble.’

In the past decade, Hampshire Fire and Rescue has lost 198 firefighters.

Mark Chapman, chairman of the county’s FBU which represents 1,300 firefighters, has called on MPs from across Hampshire to unite and ‘reverse cuts both nationally and locally’.

‘The fire and rescue service is the front line against nearly all of the emerging risks the UK faces, from building safety, to climate change, to pandemics, to terrorism,’ he added.

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‘But we’ve lost more than 11,000 firefighters since 2010 and can’t handle multiple national emergencies at once. Locally in Hampshire we have had 12 per cent - 198 - of firefighters cut from the front line and it’s only a matter of time until that happens.’

The News has approached the Home Office for comment.

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