Firemen's Strike

[Dsg]

Why is it that the army do not plan to use the existing fire appliances, but resort to the ancient green goddesses ?

[Shatnerfan]

The modern fire engines will be behind striking firemen's 'picket lines.' Tony Blair will not cross the lines for fear of antagonisiing the srikers.

[Moog]

That cannot be true..... if someone dies while the firemen are striking and the reason is that the equipment used by the army was not sufficient (e.g. news showed that the ladders were much shorter on Green goddesses) then surely the striking firemen will be criminally negligent for preventing the use of the correct equipment and liable to prosecution. I thought the reason was that the army is not trained to use the more advanced equipment that the fire service use, though this seems a bit flimsy... why haven't trained them in the 20 some years since the last firemen's strike...?

[Shatnerfan]

I read the above in the Mail, an anti-Blairite paper. Not to be disrespectful to firemen, I would be surprised if a serviceman could not adequately use their engines with a little trainig.

[PhilLew]

The Army (and Navy) have equipment that is every bit as good as the Fire Brigades they provide their own fire service within millitary bases and at sea etc. the difference is they will split the equipment into different vehicles, they will be using search & rescue and B.A. equipment carried in different vehicles, the green godesses are just big water tankers and pumps, I was speaking to an officer in the Navy about this the other day, he said they could take any equipment they need from a fire station, with the help of the Police, if required, but they don't need it as their own gear is just as good. :-)

[Moog]

Again that can't be true, Green Goddesses are quite obviously less well equiped than the state of the art engines which pile out of the fire station near me on a sadly too regular basis, as I already mentioned the ITN news were harping on about the length on ladders on the army vehicles being much shorter (certainly than the Simon snorkel jobs!) and those old army trucks cannot possibly be as fast as the new fire engines... if the army can use the equipment why bother with the green goddesses at all?

[froggequene]

According to what I've read in the papers the army, allegedly, simply don't have sufficient training to use the equipment on the fire engines.

[froggequene]

As I was about to type before my equipment decided it was going to work properly, the army probably aren't using the fire engines because of insurance or something glitch like that.

[Moog]

If that is the case why haven't they been trained in the 25 years since the last time the fire service striked?

[PaulYukochan]

If the army train on the more sophisticated fire engines and equipment, might there not be a danger that they would move into the firefighting profession - especially if they realise that the fire fighters are getting paid more.