The most recent floods have emphasised once again the pressing need for the response to such emergencies to be made a statutory duty for fire and rescue services in England and Wales.
It was a very difficult Christmas for our Emergency Services as our Flooding issue in parts of the UK are consistently worsening. There are firefighters up to their shoulders in water and worse. Others are carrying people out of their water-sodden homes from hard to reach top floor windows. Some are plunged waist deep into icy water to rescue stranded adults and children, carrying evacuees to safety, to dry land, to council-run shelters. It will be a Christmas to remember for those poor individuals, and for the firefighters who rescued them.
Firefighters in the North of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland worked round the clock in the grimmest conditions imaginable to save pregnant women, children and vulnerable elderly people in care homes. The fire and rescue service in Scotland was properly acknowledged as the lead agency during the flood rescues, with firefighters from all over the country getting involved. In Greater Manchester firefighters rescued almost 1,000 people in a single day after torrential downpours hit. In one part of Manchester where care home residents were too frail to be evacuated, firefighters had to move them to the top floor of the residential home to safety. In Wigan, a firefighter boat crew rescued people, one after the other, from 20 different houses. Oxfordshire firefighters, meanwhile, headed north to help colleagues there, deploying a much needed high volume pump unit.
Fire and rescue services may be funded from budgets drawn up locally, but when emergencies such as this hit, it is not just a case of all hands to the pump, it’s all the pumps to wherever they are needed. HVPs are national resources, based all around the country, making them national assets that strengthen our national resilience during floods, in spite of the government’s insistence that fire and rescue is purely a local service.
Life Saving Equipment is essential to the brilliant teams that risk their own lives for others every day and Reach and Rescue consistently endeavour to supply our friends with top of the range equipment that will assist rescues in all types of water rescuing situations. If you would like to try some of our life saving equipment, do not hesitate to give us a ring at +44 (0)330 159 5088 or email jo@reachandrescue.com for more information.
