SCOTLAND’s fire chief has apologised to a firefighter’s wife after he blocked her on social media when she sent him a letter from her son pleading for his father to be given working equipment because “I don’t want to grow up with no dad”.
Lindsey Innes sent a private message to Martin Blunden, head of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS), when her nine-year-old son penned the letter after hearing his parents discuss his father’s work.
She said: “Hi Mr Blunden, my husband is a firefighter in Edinburgh. Our 9yr old son overhead us talking about how they only have 1 radio per BA [breathing apparatus] team and how dangerous this is and that his torch is not fit for purpose. Our son wrote this that evening in his bed. What can be done? Lindsey”
The letter to Blunden read: “This is Keith’s son don’t know if you know him but he works for the fire brigade but I am writing to you because I am 9 years old and I don’t want to grow up with no dad so can you please give him and the other people a radio and a torch from Sandy.”
However, Blunden immediately blocked Innes, leading her to respond: “As a concerned wife and child I contacted the Chief Fire Officer regarding the safety of firefighters who serve him. I did this privately rather than publicly for a personal response. His response was to block me. Why? Total disregard for firefighters families.”
Blunden told The Sunday National: “I take the health and wellbeing of our staff extremely seriously and will always listen to and engage with SFRS staff or indeed their families, regardless of how they chose to contact me, and address their concerns directly wherever possible.
“On this occasion, I can only offer my sincere apologies to Mrs Innes and her son for an honest mistake and I look forward to speaking with them as soon as possible.”
However, firefighters say the problem with communications is a long-running one, dating back more than a decade to an incident in 2009, in which 35-year-old Lothian and Borders firefighter Ewan Williamson died while tackling a blaze at the Balmoral Bar, in Dalry Road Edinburgh.
Six years later the single fire service SFRS were fined £54,000 after they admitted failing “to have in place an effective system of radio communication” on the night of the fire.
One firefighter, who has been with the service for 10 years, told this newspaper on condition of anonymity: “The radio issue has been going on for as long as I’ve been in the service.
“We’re using the same radios now that we’ve used since I joined, and they were old then.”
They said the new BA radio sets come with an integrated comms unit which is given to one of the minimum two-person team.
“But it’s the same radio that’s at the end of the fancy, all-singing, all-dancing new unit. You tell me if that makes sense,” said the firefighter.
“It’s basically a hand-held radio you hook on to your tunic. Effectively, if both of you go into a burning building, you and your team leader, who operates the radio, what happens if you get separated or if he falls or is incapacitated?”
Another SFRS source added: “I could take two radios home from work and you could walk down the street half a mile, and you’d start to break up. If you go upstairs in a building that’s maybe got quite thick walls, old walls, you start to lose the signal.”
Blunden said the safety of SFRS firefighters is paramount, and added: “We currently provide every fire appliance with enough radios and torches to allow firefighters to carry out their duties safely and all equipment is fit for purpose … As part of the service’s efforts towards continuous improvement, we are currently investing in new personal issue torches for every firefighter in Scotland.
“The procurement exercise for this started in autumn 2020 and we anticipate commencing the rollout of these by the end of this financial year.”
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