Taxi Driver Online

Firefighters were forced to take taxis to and from a massive factory fire because the brigade has sold off so many vehicles.

Around 60 firefighters were involved in tackling the blaze at a commercial building on Ferris Street, Openshaw , on Sunday.


Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service used two private hire taxis to ferry crews from Moss Side and Oldham to and from the incident.

There is understood to have been a shortage of brigade vans and cars after years of cutbacks.

The fire in Openshaw started in a commercial building. (Photo: Manchester Fire)
Firefighters took to social media to ridicule the situation, posting a picture of County Fire Officer Peter O’Reilly superimposed next to a taxi.

On an internal fire crews site they wrote: “Taxis to Replace Fire Engines. Greater Manchester’s Chief Proudly Shows Off New Firefighting Fleet”, beneath a BBC news strapline.

Paul Argyle, Deputy County Fire Officer, said that Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service regularly moves crew around the county in cars and vans rather than fire engines. This includes changing people over at incidents as watches change duty.

He added: “This practice has nothing to do with operational resources. It is simply a way to move people around in the most cost effective way. We will leave fire engines at the scene and just change crew over which helps us to ensure there is as little disruption as possible to firefighting.

“Over the years we have reduced the number of cars and vans we have in our own fleet for this purpose as incidents and our budget have both reduced. For this reason, sometimes we use taxis to take people to places and this is the most cost effective way of doing it.”

Ten fire engines and a number of aerial appliances were deployed at the scene. The brigade insist the use of taxis was not due to a shortage of appliances.

Firefighters tackling the blaze at a commercial site on Ferris Street. (Photo: Sean Hansford)
One crew member member said: “In normal circumstances crews would return to their station in their engine and another crew would take over.

“Many of the firefighters were covered in a green film of congealed oil when they got into the taxis, as a premises which reprocesses cooking oil was affected by the fire. Some crews did not get back to station until two hours after the end of their shift.”

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/firefighters-forced-catch-taxis-huge-12638826

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Coming soon - Firefighting awareness training for taxi drivers, a 1 hour course on what fires look like and how to turn on a tap correctly. Drivers will be assessed on their ability to lean out the drivers window whilst shouting 'nee-naw'. And a requirement to carry hoses and standpipes at pit test !

A spokesperson said 'Taxi drivers are often nearer to fires than the emergency services. If they were trained they could start tackling blazes until a fire engine arrives'

Don't give civil servants any ideas.

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IDFIMH

it's not the civil servants you want to worry about it's the politicians trying to cut back services to maintain their slush fund sorry i meant expenses

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector