I’m very worried about plans to introduce new appliances for North Yorkshire Fire Service and I have appealed to North Yorkshire’s Chief Fire Officer and North Yorkshire Fire Authority to rethink their plans. There is nothing wrong with the appliances themselves, but TRVs only accommodate two or three officers and four officers need to be present to enter a burning building. These TRVs will be the first response to a serious fire. If the firemen can’t enter the building straightaway, lives could be lost. I am seriously concerned that these new measures in Malton, Pickering, Tadcaster and Northallerton are dangerous and cause unnecessary risk. I can understand that the Fire Authority wants to cut manpower costs because, whilst the number of fires in North Yorkshire has gone down by 40%, the Fire Service’s costs have only dropped by 20%. However, there is a level of service that we simply can’t go below, which is why there should always be four officers on every appliance, allowing two to go in the building and two to standby to support them.
