The Shutting Of My Local Fire Station
My local fire station at Kingsland is slated to be closed. As can be expected there is now a vigorous campaign to save it.
In London, we’ve had closures of hospitals and A & E units, but here in this part of the capital, there doesn’t seem to have been a backlash against that. I have two large newly-rebuilt hospitals at the Royal London and UCLH, which are just a very simple journey away. And in the other direction there’s Homerton, of which I have one small good experience. Talking to local people, I’ve never heard a complaint about hospital healthcare in this area. So the reorganisation may have worked well, despite the partial closure of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, which we used to use, when we lived in the Barbican.
Obviously, there have been a few glitches, but now that GP surgeries are bigger and much more capable, I don’t think that anybody is saying that the changes have not been positive. The planning of the changes obviously used all of the data to get the balance right.
The coverage and number of stations of the London Fire Brigade has probably changed little since I used to live in North London as a child.
These days though, you rarely see a fire engine. I think I can remember just one or two since I moved here two years ago. I’d love to see the data for how many call-outs there have been in London over the years. I suspect that the pattern has changed dramatically with more serious fires in high buildings and road accidents. After all high buildings and badly driven high-performance cars have become more common.
So does the London Fire Brigade fit the threats it faces?
I suspect not, as too much it is based on an historic map, when house and generally small fires were a lot more numerous. But now that many more houses and premises have smoke detection systems, the tragic domestic fires have been reduced. We still get them I know, but isn’t it about time, that premises had to have a fire inspection, every few years or so.
The trouble is that the man on the Dalston Omnibus, doesn’t generally believe what politicians tell them. So we get a stand off, which in the end doesn’t change anything.
The full data from all of the London Fire Brigade should be published, to see where the service needs to be changed. some of the decisions prompted by the data, will be unpalatable to some, but what we want is a better fire Service, not one designed on London’s structure of many years ago.
I doubt we’ll see the data made available, as it might point to a different decision.
What Would The NRA Do About This?
Two fire-fighters have been shot dead and two have been injured in New York state. It’s reported here.
So what does the NRA think about this one? Perhaps the fire department, should go in with all guns blazing?
Sort of fight fire with fire!
You Can’t Legislate For Stupid
This little snippet from The Times today, hints at a major row in the state of Utah over gun ownership.
Clouds of smoke blanketed western states in America yesterday as firefighters blamed gun owners for scores of fires.
A furious row erupted after a fire official in Utah said that some gunmen using the forests for target practice “might as well just go up there and strike a match”.
Clark Aposhian, chairman of the Utah Shooting Sports Council, conceded that gun owners were responsible for some forest fires but, citing the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms, he added: “You start banning guns and you’re on a slippery slope.”
Coy Porter, Utah’s chief deputy fire marshal, said legislation for permanent bans might be introduced. “Unfortunately you can’t legislate for stupid,” he added.
Checking this page, which gives worldwide murder statistics, it doesn’t appear that the state has a high homicide rate.
Perhaps, they’re all bad shots, which explains the large amount of fires. But as the fire officer said, you can’t legislate for stupid.
Greeks Vent Their Fury on Microsoft
The Greeks have tried to destroy Microsoft’s offices in Athens by fire according to this article in The Register.
It would appear no-one was hurt.
Where was the Health and Safety Assessment?
This story of an off-duty trainee fireman, who saved a man from a blazing car, that then exploded, is a good story we all like to read. The fireman is being rightly praised and no-one is bothering about the Health and Safety implications. Perhaps, we have moved on in this area.
FiReControl Was Abysmal Failure
FiReControl was one of the Blair government’s flagship projects, which had the aim of sorting out the 999 services for the fire brigades across England. According to this report from the the National Audit Office, it wasn’t a success. Here’s the first paragaph.
The project to replace the 46 Fire and Rescue Services’ local control rooms across England with nine purpose-built regional control centres linked by a new IT system has been a comprehensive failure. The DCLG acted to cut its losses by terminating the contract in December 2010 but at least £469 million will have been wasted.
Lord Prescott defended the system in the media last week and felt that others were to blame.
Now a letter from Matt Wrack of the Fire Brigades Union is published in The Times with the title of this post as a title, which drops Prescott in the doo-dah. If the FBU won’t support you, something must be wrong.
I hope he’s got his wet suit on!
Prescott is one of those politicians, who in my view, are not fit to run a whelk stall.
He should do everybody a favour and retire from public life. Preferably to a cottage by Spurn Head.
Made In Eccles and Protecting The Olympic Flame
The problem is how do you transport an Olympic flame from Greece to the UK.
The answer is you use a version of the Davy lamp, developed by Sir Humphry Davy and others in the first two decades of the nineteenth century.
A Miners Safety Lamp Made in Eccles
All proper Davy lamps are made in Eccles and my version in the picture is an earlier version of that used for the Olympics. They use a modified version of the 6S lamp. Mine is a version 6 and it was bought in a junk shop in Liverpool.
If you want to find out more about the lamp used, there’s a lot of information here on the maker’s web site.
Sir Humphry must be laughing his socks off in his grave. Especially, as this year’s Olympic Torch Relay will start in Cornwall, the county of his birth.
A Tragedy Waiting to Happen
The tragic fire in Derby, where five children died, was one of those incidents, where I thought there was a lot more to the story than initial reports, led us to believe.
It now appears that the father had had seventeen children by six different women and that a woman in her late twenties has been arrested for starting the fire. The father has also appeared on the Jeremy Kyle Show, which probably adds even more to the story.
A lot of C’s work as a barrister, concerned sorting out families like this one. Usually, at the centre of her cases was a woman, who couldn’t say no! She would often act for the Council to get the children taken in to care.
So what is the difference here?
The state this family lived in wasn’t good, so why weren’t some of these children taken into care and fostered? I have known of families with ten or more children that were well run and the children were well looked after, but usually in these cases, both parents were model ones.
So what were Derby Social Services doing?
It would appear very little in a constructive manner! Otherwise this tragedy wouldn’t have happened.
Is The Media Egging The Rioters On?
You’ve got wall-to-wall coverage of the riots on the television, reporting it in detail.
So when kids see the action, do they think they’d like a piece of that and get involved.
And then come back and watch the damage they’ve done on the box.
It’s a violent video game come to life and you’re part of it!
People though have always liked a good fire. I can remember my mother telling me how she watched the flames as Crystal Palace burned downed from Enfield.
House Fires Are a Problem of the Young Affluent
This may seem strange, as headlines often say fires are caused by stupid smokers and others, but this report on the BBC, says those that cause accidental domestic fires are often young, have a degree and a good job, and may well have just been down the pub.
The Anonymous Widower 