Bad year for the UK?

[SteveDude]

You may or may not know that the Southern UK is suffering from a serious drought. we do get rain, but nothing like the amount we should, in fact the past few summers and winters have been very dry.

Although it has been very cold this winter it's also been very dry, already many of the water Companied in the South, including London are putting in hosepipe bans.

Yesterday saw a large Heathland Fire In Dorset...Crews in the SW have been fighting a number these fires since last summer as it has remained dry throughout and the normal damp autumn and winter did not materialise.

Now we are all predicting we are going to have a fantastic with these fires this year...especially if the summer is as hot as 2003 and 2005... I think those who hold the purse strings wil have blinkers on as usual and we will be playing I told you so with very little proper 'wildfire' equipment as our colleagues in the US and Europe have.

Our Summers have been getting progressively hotter since the early 90's...but our response to these incidents hasn't...

BBC Link

[cityfire7]

SteveDude,
All I can say is "good luck". Where I am in north Florida, we have been fortunate for the past couple of years. We have not had the widespread fires that have become common since I started. The larger wildland fires that we have had lately have been knocked using local departments and assets already in place from Florida DOF and US DOF. That has made for a nice change of pace from the regional strike team requirements of years past. As a whole, though, this has helped to prepared us for the worst and has almost forced local departments to train and equip their departments to meet this need.

If your local bean-counters can't or won't fund the proper training and equipment then please just try to keep yourselves safe until they decide to "remove their hat rack from their defacation portal" (in other words: pull their head out of their *****).

Again, good luck and stay safe.

[EFD840]

Steve, does the UK fire service have anything similar to our wildland engines or even the basic VFD brush truck?

[SteveDude]

EFD,
Yes, a lot of the County brigades have various Wildland trucks such as Pizguars, Unimogs, Land Rovers and other 4x4's

Link to Wildland Fire truck photos

[Lieut325]

Hello SteveDude,
You had mentioned you are in the LFB. How long have you been on the Job there? Where are you located? I'm on the Job in the USA and work for one of LFB retired Chiefs. I think he work out of Wadworth (spell?) London. What I heard it was a pretty busy place where he came from. Lots of fire activity.

Thanks Brother and stay safe!

[SteveDude]

Hello Bruv,
I have been on the job since 87 and hold the rank of Asst Divisional officer (Batt Chief) I am based in East London a long way across a very big City from Wandsworth. I know of the Guy you are talking about....I never knew him when he was in LFB, but have heard plenty about him since.

Wandsworth like most of inner London was Busy back in the 60's to 80's...but now it has become quite gentrified. I don't know what you class as Busy but by LFB standards Wandsworth isn't what we would call busy at all...just and average Station in an area that is mainly upmarket with a few Council Housing Estates (projects) and Industrial area providing a bit of work to keep the Station ticking over.

I believe your man didn't retire...he wasn't old enough nor had he served long enough. He just resigned from LFB when he got the new job.

I get asked about him fairly frequently and have to say here that it would not be fair to comment on someone I don't know. What I do hear isn't good... and if its true I can assure you that that is not a common representation of a typical LFB Officer.

[PattyV]

A bad year for the UK? How about a bad year for everyone in the Commonwealth apart from Australia?

MEDAL TALLY
Country G S B Total
AUS 50 45 39 |134
ENG 20 24 19 |63
IND 14 8 4 |26
CAN 10 20 16 |46
SCO 8 6 7 |21
RSA 8 4 9 |21
JAM 4 2 1 |7
MAS 3 3 4 |10
NZL 2 4 10 |16
NGR 2 3 2 |7
WAL 2 0 6 |8
SIN 1 2 3 |6
KEN 1 2 1 |4
CYP 1 1 1 |3
PNG 1 1 0 |2
IOM 1 0 1 |2
PAK 1 0 1 |2
GHA 1 0 0 |1
SRI 1 0 0 |1
TAN 1 0 0 |1
CMR 0 1 2 |3
BAH 0 1 0 |1
BAN 0 1 0 |1
MLT 0 1 0 |1
NRU 0 1 0 |1
NIR 0 1 0 |1
TRI 0 0 2 |2
FIJ 0 0 1 |1
SEY 0 0 1 |1

I dont think its just a homeground advantage either.

[SteveDude]

I will say nothing about Rugby & Cricket then Bruv.....

(INCOMING!!!!)

Anyway, can we get back to Wildland Firefighting now?

[Lieut325]

Hello SteveDude, or I should say Chief,
Thank you for the reply. I kind of figured the man we are talking about is not what you guys are about. So where he is now is much busier. 6,400 runs per year. EMS 11,800. Below is a link to a web page. I'm sure you will find it a interesting read. Poplar web page is pretty cool. Nice photos. Looks like you guys do some work!

Thank you again and stay safe!

http://www.nbfire.us/

[MalahatTwo7]

Seems to be a bit of a trend all round. Harve has been busier than a One Armed Paper Hanger, dealing with brush fires.

I'm just a ways across the river from him, and the whole region has been "Red Flagged" a couple of times over this past two weeks. Its only going to get worse I think unless the summer rains happen.

Vienna FD just loaded the trash pump to the utility truck a few days ago, in preparation for the season.

[PattyV]

After 5 years we finally had our Great Summer Rains. (yes the capitals are there for a reason) Our dam is full and the bush is actually green!
Though down south they are still having a bit of a hard time in places.
I wish you guys luck with your fire seasons. We had the shortest ever fire season this year after thinking we would have the worst/longest fire season ever. It would seem that you guys have recieved our share of it.

[SteveDude]

Hello SteveDude, or I should say Chief,
Thank you for the reply. I kind of figured the man we are talking about is not what you guys are about. So where he is now is much busier. 6,400 runs per year. EMS 11,800. Below is a link to a web page. I'm sure you will find it a interesting read. Poplar web page is pretty cool. Nice photos. Looks like you guys do some work!

Thank you again and stay safe!

http://www.nbfire.us/

Bruv, I am not Chief on these forums...I'm just a regular Jake like everyone else.

The job of a Borough Commander has little to do with fires attended in that locality. There are three Stations within that Borough and between them they make about 5,500 calls. Obviosuly there are single Stations in the capital that make much more than this so that should give you a good idea.

Howver, like I said, the way we mobilise Chiefs over here is much different. The nearerst Chief goes...irrespective of where he is based. Clearly during the day if the BC is in the Borough and a job goes to what you would deem a second alarm, he would go...but of a night, that BC may be elsewhere and somepone else could attend.

As stated, I know nothing about your Chief...for all I know he could have been a Fireman/Company Officer at any one of London's busiest or quietest Stations...this will not reflect on how he run the Borough, 99% of his job there was political and managerial and all about reducing calls through community safety.

Here is a link to the Borough Profile for LB Wandsworth