If a major fire occurs, like that in the George in Rye in 2019 shown above, specialist gear like the aerial ladder may have to be borrowed in future, if possible, from a Kent fire station as Rye is “frontier territory”, and such equipment may move even further away in Sussex to the largest centres like Eastbourne, warned a fireman at last Saturday’s lunchtime protest meeting at the Tilling Green Community Centre. In 2019 the aerial ladder arrived about two hours after the other fire engines – and time is crucial in a fire.
Public meetings were held in Hastings, Rye, Winchelsea and Icklesham last weekend to oppose further proposed cuts in local fire service and Helena Dollimore, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Hastings and Rye, said she would stand up for our fire services as Labour MP for the area.
Virtually all public services have faced repeated cuts in the past dozen years after the banking crisis caused by the banks’ bad investments, the meetings were told, and these cuts in equipment, pay and jobs have resulted in worse public services, ranging from the NHS to schools, universities and even the courts.
Rye has recently lost one of its two fire engines and there is a pattern over recent years of fewer fire engines and fewer staff which the fire brigade’s union is fighting with Labour Party help.
Fireman Leo Cacciatiore said Rye had been lucky that there had been no major incidents recently, but fire risks were increasing with climate change and incidents ranging from wild fires to unexpected floods, while nationally fire services had lost one in five staff across the country.
“The numbers of staff and the number of engines keep going down” he said, but risks like the chemical works on the way down to Rye Harbour have not gone away – and even a home fire can pose many risks if not dealt with quickly.
The fire authority are looking again at their proposed cuts, and a petition against the cuts is in hand with a number of protest meetings being held across the district.
Image Credits: Nick Taylor , Natasha Robinson .
You might find that Kent Fire and Rescue isn’t in any better shape than East Sussex, their retained stations such as Lydd are not guaranteed to be available 24/7
It would be very nice if Labour got elected and our Fire and Rescue service was returned to its previous manning levels but where will the money come from?
The same pot that’s going to solve the nursing problem, solve immigration, open the swimming pool, put more police on the streets etc etc………….
Not to contradict Mr Cacciatiore, who knows much more than I do, but there have indeed been ‘major incidents’ recently. As I understand it, the fire on Jan 18th in Hastings had to draw on pumps from across the county. Thankfully, that fire was in an empty building. The flooding at Priory Meadow must count too. But it just goes to underline the point of Charles’s article, that we need a reliable service and proper provision for the fire-fighters who risk their lives on our behalf.
Recruitment is also mentioned, and, anecdotally at least, this is another unfortunate tale of under resource. At Rye, a lack of female changing facilities prevents female recruitment. And if you cannot recruit women, effectively, due to equality legislation, you can’t recruit men. (And that’s not to critique equality legislation!) Finally, the big outstanding question re provision of fire service, is whether the second engine promised by East Sussex Fire and Rescue and announced by Mrs Hart after their 1st Feb meeting is to be based at The Ridge or Bohemia Rd. This was a question put to Mrs Hart by Cllr. Andrew Meir (Lib Dem) last month. In reference to Mrs Hart’s statement, he asked,
“A remaining point of concern is that the wording does not specifically refer to the retention of fully-staffed appliances at the Ridge, but only “in Hastings”. That could mean at Bohemia Road station, which is unacceptably far from the villages of Fairlight, Guestling, Icklesham and Pett which I represent.”
I’m not sure we know the answer yet, but I’m glad our elected representatives are working on resolving this issue.
We ought also to remember the work of our local fire-fighters in all this and remember the risks they take on our behalf – amply underlined by the death recently of Barry Martin, a fire-fighter who died after the Jenner’s blaze up in Edinburgh. It’s a dangerous job, and that needs to be borne in mind outside of the election cycle.
Sadly it’s a situation of slow erosion of services that matter while a chief officer collects personal awards and plaudits on easily run schemes that achieve very little it will sadly take a mass loss of life snd removal of ineffective management to change anything ..as for the female changing areas portacabins are regularly used throughout the service for all sorts of reasons so changing areas would be easily solved
As Chair of the Winchelsea meeting, I should clarify that when speaking about the lack of recent major incidents, Lee Cacciatore was of course referring to the Rye and Winchelsea area. This and the Rye meeting the following day, chaired by Cllr Cheryl Creaser went into detail about the risks posed by the downgrading of the station at The Ridge by reduced overnight cover. This and the reduction of appliances in Rye present real risks to our communities.
The incidents in Hastings were referred to later in the meeting by East Sussex Cllr Phil Scott who is a member of the East Sussex Fire Authority.
Hello Rye News. Please ensure that I am quoted accurately. Firstly My quote for the Aerial Ladder was that we were lucky at Waves incident that the ladder had not been deployed elsewhere.
The Chemical Works has its own Fire Suppression system, and this was not mentioned in my brief. It is true we are still seeing more calls to climate related incidents, medical assistance calls and over recent times our call volumes have increased overall.
Mr Harris is correct there have been a number of large scale incidents within the Hastings area that have demanded Fire engines from across East Sussex. This meant that the service is stretched and with a struggling on-call service which has seen declining availability over the last few years, it is clear more care and investment is needed in this area. We have also lost 3 fire engines in recent times and at this time only have two Ariel Ladder platforms across the service. We are also concerned about slower response times and the correct number of fire fighters being in attendance. The Ridge proposals did threaten this, providing a slower 2nd fire engine to Rye.
Please also if you can refer to my correct role as a Firefighter. This is representative of the role for all genders. We encourage recruitment from all walks of life.
I am also a Local FBU Representative, Chair of Bohemia Road Fire station.