windsorfirestation.co.uk

Utterly determined to close Windsor down, Brigade managers moved the Incident Control Unit from Windsor to Maidenhead in December 2008. This appliance attends all large incidents requiring 5 or more appliances.

The new high-tech ICU failed to meet regular ‘go live’ dates from July 2008 because of technical problems and our bombastic managers pushed ahead before the appliance was ready. Then at a ‘Make Pumps 6′ incident in Slough on the 17 December the appliance totally failed as a result of ‘technical problems’.

The appliance is to be crewed by retained (Part-time) firefighters at Maidenhead and Cookham. That is in theory, because on 02, 03 and 04 January NO retained crews were available, therefore the ICU was UNavailable.

Indeed, in the January/February edition of the Firefighter magazine, the Fire Brigades Union make specific reference to the Royal Berkshire Brigade following an Audit Commission Report. It states, ‘There was clear evidence that RBFRS is operating at significantly below their retained duty system (RDS) establishment. RBFRS IRMP identifies that the peak time for emergency incidents coincides with the peak of RDS unavailability’.

The £1 Million ICU sat idle and gathering dust.

This is particularly tragic since the old ICU also sat idle gathering dust at Windsor during the above technological and crewing failures. This appliance was simple and reliable from the beginning and was crewed by wholetime personnel.

It is time for the Brigade to accept that the new ICU should be sited at Windsor. However such a common sense decision would fly in the face of the crass decision to close Windsor Fire Station?

Below are just a selection of calls attended by Windsor Firefighters during late 2008 and early 2009.

As you will observe, we attend a wide variety of incidents and frequently back up other areas. Closing Windsor fire station would therefore be unimaginable?

21 December at 08-18 hours. Dedworth Road, Windsor. Fire caused by unattended candle in a shop.

24 December at 09-28 hours. Southlea Road, Datchet. Car fire.

27 December at 11-37 hours. Stag and Hounds PH., Binfield. Chimney fire.

27 December at 16-36 hours. Dundas Close, Bracknell. House fire.

28 December at 02-51 hours. Hanover Way, Dedworth. Car/Garage fire.

31 December at 15-49 hours. Grove Road, Windsor. Chimney fire.

01 January at 03-02 hours. Travel lodge, Slough. 6 persons rescued from a lift.

01 January at 12-57 hours. Bridgeman Drive, Windsor. Kitchen fire.

01 January at 16-51 hours. Thorpe Close, Binfield, Bracknell. Make pumps 3 house fire.

04 January at 21-13 hours. Nightingale Walk, Windsor.Young child released from locked room.

05 January at 09-03 hours. Marks and Spencers, Windsor. 9 persons rescued from a lift.

05 January at 09-34 hours. Tozer Walk, Dedworth. Severe flooding.

05 January at 18-55 hours. Bridgeman Drive, Windsor. Severe flooding following cold weather pipe burst.

In an era of geographical, commericial and population expansion, closing a fire station down is a notion tinged with madness?

The date is 21st December as I write. The festive season is upon us, but in an era of cost-cutting and station closures we feel it prudent to proffer a little safety advice, based upon a real incident.

This morning at 08-18 hours red watch Windsor were called to a Launderette in Dedworth Road, Windsor. It would appear that upon closing the premises the night before, a festive candle placed upon the counter had not been extinguished. As the hours of darkness passed, the candle burnt down to the counter, charring the surface.

It was fortuitous that this had not occurred during the night, since there were people asleep in the flats upstairs. Had that candle set the counter alight, the whole shop would have been intensely ablaze-and spreading everywhere within minutes

So please be careful with candles and Christmas lights. If you have any concerns please contact your local fire station for advice.

Please be safe and feel reassured by our continuing presence.

The following examples represent only a small selection of 999 calls for Windsor Firefighters;

18 December at 20-30 hours. Alarms operating at the Travelodge, Windsor.

17 December at 00-40 hours Wellington Street, Slough. Six pump shop fire.

15 December at 20-16 hours. Luff Close, Windsor. Emergency entry gained into property.

12 December at 12-35 hours. Sawyers Close Flats, Windsor. Lift rescue.

10 December at 00-25 hours.Foster Avenue, Windsor. Serious house fire.

09 December at 19-00 hours. Road traffic collision M4 (Jct 10 to 11) 1 person trapped.

05 December at 22-40 hours. Manor Farm Close, Windsor. Alarms operating at elderly persons home. (Note: Only one appliance sent despite this being a life-risk)

04 December at 18-10 hours. M25 (Jct 15 to 14). Car fire.

02 December at 16-57 hours. Tesco, Windsor. Person locked in car.

01 December at 10-03 hours. Duco International, Slough. Explosion and fire.Make pumps six, plus the Incident Control Unit and aerial appliance.

30 November at 22-30 hours. North End Lane, Sunningdale. Kitchen fire.

24 November at 08-30 hours. Ascot High Street. Car fire.

Now you will appreciate the diverse range of calls experienced by Windsor, plus the sheer worth of the appliance to neighbouring station grounds?

Undoubtedly, you will also be baffled as to why the Brigade want to close Windsor Fire Station? The simple answer is greed: Downgrade the station gradually, then sell of the land which is estimated to be worth £3 million. Then consider the money the Brigade ’save’ on fire station operating costs?

This is why we are fighting to save this station, which is ultimately critical for the safety of both residents and Firefighters within east Berkshire.

As part of the plan to dowgrade and close Windsor Fire Station, the Incident Control Unit (ICU) was recently transferred to Maidenhead. There it will seemingly be crewed by part-time Firefighters who have been lumbered with the huge responsibility of operating this new £1 million appliance.

The new appliance is technologically advanced, with inter-linked touch screen computer systems, high specification communications, satellite systems and GPS, media matrixing and much, much more. Our beleagured retained colleagues are expected to maintain their competancies upon both this appliance AND the pump upon the basis of only 3 hours training per week? (Within that time-frame they are also expected to standard test hundreds of different items of equipment?)

Furthermore, retained Firefighters have other full time occupations and businesses. The new ICU is expected to be used more intensely at ‘over the border’ incident for hours on end. Will the retained crews be available for such in the future?

The transfer of the ICU has taken months to complete as a result of training issues and systems problems. As a result of the bombastic mindset to close Windsor, this appliance is now ‘running before it can walk’…

On the 17 December at oo-40 hours, the new ICU was called to a 6 pump fire at Wellington Street, Slough. The new £1 million ICU totally failed in operation as the result of a ‘technical faults’. Furthermore, the crewing levels were so deficient that some Maidenhead wholtime Firefighters were utilised from the Fireground. The new appliance was reduced to a paper system of incident control at a time when the tried and tested old ICU sat in the darkness within the bays at Windsor Fire Station…

We will keep you informed of any developments.

We have been made aware of much disgruntlement and disgust emanating from members of the Fire Authority following their meeting on the 10th December. This appears to have disintegrated into a rather heated affair which has left many members lacking faith in Brigade Management.

Why, you may ask?

Well , an item came up regarding the building extension for Wokingham Fire Station. You will recall that this is where the Brigade hope to use Windsors night crew when the latter is closed?  However, the forthcoming judicial review brought by the Royal Borough Council stopped that in its tracks.

The Assistant Chief of Berkshire commented upon the matter and made a slip of the tongue by uttering,’ there were a number of options for the manning of Wokingham if the judicial review goes against the Fire Authority and Windsor remains open 24 hours a day’.

There was astonishment and disbelief from Fire Authority members as to what such options were and why such options had NOT previously been explored instead of cutting Windsor’s cover?

The Brigade had previously coaxed the newly elected Fire Authority  into believing that the closure of Windsor was needed. Many have since disclosed to us that they would have voted otherwise with hindsight.

Now, they have learnt, at the ‘eleventh hour’ before a prominent High Court case, that the Brigade had other (undisclosed!) options to keep Windsor open.

An apology is owed to the Fire Authority by Brigade management.

On 28 September at 03-20 hours a serious fire broke out at Wayside Mews, Maidenhead. The incident was a ‘persons reported’ fire – a call whereby it was known or believed that persons were trapped. Upon arrival of the Fire Service, 3 persons had managed to escape the fire by jumping from either the 1st or 2nd floors. 1 female adult unfortunately died.

Maidenhead whole–time were first in attendance, followed by Maidenhead retained and Sloughs second pumping appliance The Slough appliance booked mobile from the incident at 07:37. The last pump to return from the incident was Maidenhead whole-time at 10:00 that same morning. Green watch Maidenhead (the day crew) were returned to the incident later that day for a specialist task.During the above call another house fire occurred. The second incident location was in Edinburgh Road, Furze Platt at 04-00 hours. The attendance was from Windsor plus Sloughs first pump. The Slough pump booked mobile from the incident at 04:26. Windsor returned to station at approximately 05-00 hours.
 During the above periods the following standby (cover) moves were made: The Windsor pump was sent on standby cover to Maidenhead station at 03:47. (Prior to the second house fire)Wargrave was sent on standby to Maidenhead at 04-07 hours, arriving at 04-22 hours.Langley was sent on standby to Slough at 04-05 hours, arriving at 04-15 hours. (Covering the whole of Langley, Slough and Windsor)Now consider how stretched emergency resources will be in east Berkshire if Windsor Fire Station is CLOSED in the future? Limited resources can mean the difference between life and death for both the public and Firefighters.

On the 01 December there was a huge explosion and fire at Duco International, Eastbourne Road, Slough. The explosion was heard and felt over a 5 miles radius.This was to stretch firecover in the area to breaking point - even before the proposed closure of Windsor…
                         
At 10:30 hours the Windsor pump was mobilised to an Road Traffic Collision between Junction 10 and 8/9 of the M4 motorway with Newbury’s Rescue Support Vehicle and Maidenheads retained pump. At around 10:32 though, Control re-ordered the Windsor appliance to return to station and mobilise to Duco International incident with the switch-crewed Incident Control Unit. The Incident Control Unit was in attendance at Slough until 12:45. [Incidentally the new £1 million version of the ICU was meant to go live with Maidenhead retained crews from 01 December but was obviously unavailable. This was the umpteenth missed  date by Brigade management] 

In total, the incident required two pumps from Slough, one from Langley, one from Maidenhead, the ICU from Windsor and an Arial appliance from Slough. Taking into consideration the redeployment of the Windsor crew, Berkshire had 5 pumps committed plus two special appliances. It may be noteworthy to add at this juncture that Berkshire closed Sonning Fire Station earlier this year and therefore had less resources available.
 
The Langley pump was in attendance at Duco until around 11:40 hours when it was then sent on standby to Slough. On standby,  Langley picked up 3 consecutive bin fires (incident numbers: 8551, 8554 and 8555) between 12:17 and 13:03 hours.

Wokingham and Cookham were subsequently used to cover Slough on standby! (The former, according to the Brigade, being the ’much needed’ appliance for the town?)
           
In addition, at 13:33 hours both Windsor and Langley pumps were mobilised to a smell of burning at Upton Park (incident no. 8557), leaving only 1 Slough pump and both Maidenhead pumps looking after the whole of the Maidenhead/Slough/ Langley/ Windsor area. 

Enough is enough: the safety of Firefighters and the public of east Berkshire cannnot be compromised further.            

At around midnight (note the critical time period) on Wednesday the 10th December a severe house fire broke out at Foster Avenue, Windsor.

Newspaper reports state that the desperate female occupant had attempted to telephone the Fire Service from the property upon discovering the fire but it had rendered both her mobile and land -line inoperative. The occupant then ran outside and attempted to seek help from neighbouring properties by banging loudly upon doors - but to no avail. She then frantically tried to stop a passing vehicle - without success.

It was TWENTY minutes before this woman was even able to  all the fire service via a ‘Good Samaritan’. The Windsor crew were first upon the scene within 3 minutes, following the call at at 00-25 hours and backed up by their Slough colleagues. The crews were at the scene of this destructive house fire for over 2 hours. Four breathing apparatus wearers were deployed with two high pressure hosereels. Neighbours were subsequently evacuated for safety reasons.

Can you imagine this same scenario in the future being compounded by the closure of Windsor Fire Station? The ‘nearest available pump’ would be sent, but given that Slough Fire Station is the nearest geographical point, then it is of little comfort to know that they are already the second busiest station in the county.

In simple, stark terms, they may NOT be available…

Terry Wogan the BBCs veteran broadcaster was immensely grateful for the swift services of Berkshire pumps. A tumble drier fire occurred at his home at approximately 23-30 hours on Tuesday 09 December.

The Slough and Maidenhead crews rapidly attended the incident at the stars home in Bray rendering the appliance safe. Mr Wogan was full of praise for the Berkshire crews as he recanted the drama upon his Radio Two Breakfast Show.

Unfortunately, future plans to close Windsor Fire Station will see a reduction in fire cover in east Berkshire. Mr Wogan and other victims of fire may not be fortunate enough to experience the current level of service, since appliances will be ever more thinly spread across the county.