Alarms require servicing by competent approved organisations such as CFS to help eradicate unwanted alarms. However in the case of genuine alarms that are unconfirmed, there is an ever increasing amount of Fire and Rescue services that are adopting the policy of not attending calls to automatic fire alarms (see earlier blog).

Our industry association is in the process of compiling a comprehensive list of fire and rescue services that have adopted this stance, believed to be in response to Government cuts. The list, I am led to believe, will also include the number of machines, etc that one can expect to attend in the case of a confirmed alarm.

CFS have contacted the FIA and are awaiting this information and on receipt will put this on the web site so that our valued customers will be aware of any extra precautions they may need to put in place – they do not want to arrive on a Monday morning to find that their business has been destroyed. Indeed this happened recently to the charity which my wife worked at which is quite devastating for both the organisation and the employees alike.

The Scottish government has gone into consultation over the possibility of merging its Police authority into a one main authority covering the whole of Scotland and the Fire authorities into one main fire authority. They say this is in order to modernise for the 21^st century.

I would hope that this was not purely a money saving scheme, but a way of sharing resources and training amongst the whole of Scotland wherever it may be needed therefore improving the services that they provide.

I feel that although this radical restructuring would undoubtedly save money by reducing the overheads and also increase resources, my concern is it may also distance the authorities from their local communities. With Scotland being such a diverse country, different regions will have specific needs that the authorities will need to concentrate on. The main question is will this be as easy if the Police and Fire Service are operated from central bases instead of being amongst the communities that they are here to serve?

CFS provides fire and safety throughout the UK, including Scotland

More information can be found from

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/09/15110325/0

In a debate in the House of Commons on Tuesday 7 September, Graham Jones MP called on the government to take the issue of metal theft more seriously. He asked energy minister, Charles Hendry MP to raise the issue through the energy emergency executive, the committee that deals the impact of natural disasters and terrorism on vital energy assets.

This extract from Recycling & Waste World highlights the seriousness of metal thefts. It is believed that metal is changing hands for cash and there is no traceability of the authenticity of the source of the metal and the destination of the monies raised. The theft of these metals is causing disruption to businesses and householders alike. Drain covers have been removed leaving potential danger that a pedestrian, motorist or cyclist could receive serious injury or even death. Tax is probably not being paid on this black market economy and it is very doubtful that these racketeers possess waste transfer licences. Major disruption has been caused to Businesses, Hospitals, Utilities & transport facilities throughout the uk and whilst the prices of these material are spiralling in this stagnant economic climate the situation can only get worse. The government needs to act now. If copper cable is removed from say a hospital it is just not metal theft but the act may be endangering lives of others and the penalties should reflect this. In the meantime we need to be more vigilant, may be increase security by physical guarding and or installing early warning security systems that would be a small price to pay for peace of mind that these measures should help to keep businesses in business.

Our continuing mission to make CFS greener is a long term concern.  It goes hand in hand with caring for the places and people we protect and our multi-skilled engineers travelling around the UK on every type of site imaginable from historic buildings to power stations.

The quest to be greener has led to interesting projects including funding and setting up a bird and bat box initiative in Rectory Park in 2007.  We are following the conventional routes too – recycling all cardboard, 99% of paper, recycling batteries and securing the Environmental ISO14001 accreditation in 2008.

Our determination to be greener has led to some innovative ideas and approaches too.

Our client journeys are mapped out to reduce our carbon footprint in low emission vehicles with drivers adopting better driving techniques.  CFS even recycles waste fire extinguishers to make other metal products, pens and agricultural pellets.

The latest move is the introduction of hand held devices which reduce paper and provide improved customer contact.  So we will be receptive to further greener improvements and look forward to being inspired at events such as Sustainability and Recycling Waste Management exhibitions and  for further ideas … which we will report to you over the forthcoming months any developments

Ray Stilgoe

Group Health, Safety, Quality & Environmental Manager
CFS Group

The Fire Industry Association has highlighted an incident that could be the start of a worrying trend with fire services ignoring automatic alarms.

Essex Fire and Rescue Service has been heavily criticised after changing its response to automatic fire alarms.

According to an article in The Daily Telegraph, crews had to ignore a recent automatic fire alarm from Formula Moulding in Colchester, until a 999 call was made.  This is because of new plans bought in to help the service cut its budget to £10 million.

The newspaper suggested Essex Fire and Rescue Service has “its priorities wrong” after the premises on Whitehall Industrial Estate was hit by a blaze last month.

Earlier this year, the fire service announced that it would not be responding to automatic fire alarms because it diverts resources from genuine blazes.

But how can fire services know when an automatic alarm is not an emergency?

If fire services are using budget cuts to justify ignoring automatic calls as low priority calls, something is very wrong.  We need reassurance from all fire services across the UK that this is the first and last case of ignoring automatic alarms, otherwise we will see a rise in tragic stories in the media, that could and should have been avoided.