‘OCCUPYING fire stations to stop their closure is a tactic that should be considered,’ David Williams West Yorkshire Brigade Secretary told News Line at the 500-strong lobby outside the Fire Brigades Headquarters in Union Street in Southwark, central London on Monday.
Firefighters came from all over the country to join in the lobby which was held to oppose government plans to sack 520 firefighters and close 12 fire stations in London and up to 75 around the country.
Inside the Fire Brigades Headquarters fire chiefs were voting on whether to accept the cuts, outside angry firefighters blew whistles and vuvuzelas and demanded that action is taken and that they do not accept a single cut.
David Williams continued: ‘Out of all the stations around the country threatened with closure, eight of them are in West Yorkshire.
‘We are one of the biggest Metropolitan Brigades and we are taking a big hit.
‘We do not accept the cuts, absolutely not.
‘I can speak for my members in West Yorkshire and there is a lot of anger.
‘One of the plans this Con Dem government have got up their sleeves is to decimate what is left of the public services and sell it to the highest bidder.
‘In Ireland there is a call out charge for the fire service.
‘It is something that they are actually looking at in West Yorkshire, to charge about £400 for a call out to an Automatic Fire Alarm.
‘We are totally against this!
‘The biggest attendance to Automatic Fire Alarms is to Leeds General Infirmary.
‘We get an average of 40 calls a year, we can’t charge them £400 a call out, that would be £16,000 and they cannot afford that.’
The North East London Council of Action brought their banner and a delegation to unite the struggle to defend the fire stations and hospitals through a policy of occupying any station or hospital threatened with closure.
Greg Edwards, FBU rep for the North West London Area knew Chase Farm hospital well. He said: ‘I live in Potters Bar and I’ve had my three children at Chase Farm and a lot of the time Barnet Hospital is on divert anyway.
‘If it exists on divert already, how much worse will it be if Chase Farm Maternity, Paediatrics and the A&E are gone.
‘How much worse will it be for Barnet, North Middlesex and the QE2 hospital in Welling Garden City.
‘We just can’t understand why they are wasting money on the “re-organisation” when on the ground it means cuts, when they promised to ring fence the funding for the NHS.
‘The lesson learned is that you have to take direct action, whether that be industrial action, demonstrating or occupying.
‘Up to 520 firefighters jobs are threatened, 12 firestations and 18 fire engines in London alone.
‘That is what the Fire Authority is in that building behind us voting on.
‘Once again we were promised in the election that there would be no cuts to front line services and here we are now.
‘The government are able to find money for certain projects, like the Emirates Air Line cable car across the Thames, but not for this vital service.
‘If the fire station closures go ahead, not only will the fire service face a reduction in its ability to function but we also question what the stations will be used for.
‘Boris Johnson has actually suggested that they could use empty firestations to set up Free Schools in.
‘My members are talking about what action they will be taking, occupying and strike action would not be ruled out.’
Amanda Glover, an FBU member at the Park Royal fire station in Brent in North West London, said: ‘I came down to the lobby today to show support to stop the closures.
‘It is like having your own house insurance, how much are you willing to pay for home insurance?
‘If the closures go ahead it will definitely impact on our turn out time.
‘London is a difficult city to get around, with the river flowing straight through the middle.
‘The other day we had an incident which required six fire engines, three people were rescued from a burning building.
‘The nearest station was on another shout and the two back up stations were Knightsbridge and Clapham which are the ones threatened with closure.
‘The primary thing is to save the public and keep them safe.
‘If we are pushed to the limit to ensure the safety of the general public then we need to take action and that action could be strike action.
‘I have worked in local government where we had to lock buildings to stop people closing them down, so as a last resort, yes I do support occupying, they are pushing us to take drastic action.
‘We live in a society where we are ruled by a minority of 1% who are just out for themselves.
‘I will advertise the march through Enfield and try to bring a delegation.
‘I have to say that our union leadership during the last national strike in 2003 under Andy Gilchrist sold us down the river, he just rolled over and died.
‘We need a leadership that will stand up to pressure.’
Jason Major, the Hackney Health and Safety Rep based at Clerkenwell station, said: ‘My station is one of the ones that is threatened.
‘If it closes it would affect the local community dramatically with reduced fire cover and personnel on the ground.
‘It will put firefighters at greater risk because they will be short staffed and there will be a delay before we go into a burning building, especially high rise incidents.
‘This is because we cannot go in until we have enough personnel.
‘I think that there will be a national strike if there are compulsory redundancies.
‘I will be coming to the Chase Farm march, let everyone know and bring my family.’
Addressing the rally General Secretary Matt Wrack said: ‘I say to Cameron, you have no mandate for destroying the fire station and I say to Boris Johnson, you have no mandate for destroying the London fire service.
‘Look at the scale of the cuts. 75 fire stations are facing closure, so much for protecting front line services.
‘When we saw the floods up and down the country last week, when we saw the terrible tragedy involving the copter crash, Cameron praised the fantastic job that the public services workers did.
‘We are sick of being patronised and patted on the back.
‘Put money in to the essential services and stop these cuts.
‘This is just the start of the fight. We know that cuts cost lives.
‘More businesses will burn down, more homes will be destroyed and yes more people will be killed as a result of these cuts.
‘We need to defend our services on behalf of ourselves and the community we serve.
‘We have to keep our options open, this means thinking about industrial action.
‘These firestations belong to the people of London and it is up to the people of London to say: “These are our buildings and we are taking them over and we will not allow them to close!”
‘Don’t tell us that there is not enough money to keep our fire stations open, it is a complete and utter lie.
‘We have the right to demand the best training and the best resources to save peoples lives.’
Dave Lewis, the chair of the Tenants Association at Lakanal house in Camberwell where a fire broke out on the 3rd July 2009 in which six people died and twenty were injured, addressed the rally. He said: ‘The inquest into the fire has just started last Monday.
‘I am wholeheartedly behind your fight to stop the closure of fire stations.
‘Peckham fire station is not going to close but it is losing a fire appliance and Peckham fire station is literally across the road from our estate.
‘Peckham fire station, the residents of Lackanal House and the whole area are behind you, we will feel safer without the cuts.
‘We support your struggle.’
Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary, told the rally: ‘If you do go in to dispute we will give you practical support.
‘25 years and three months ago, at Kings Cross station, there were a number of cutbacks and a number of job losses and as a result of those cutbacks and job losses, a massive fire took place.
‘If these cuts had been in place then, the magnitude of people who died in that fire would have been 100 times worse.
‘We are now living in a time of mass unemployment and job loses.
‘They should be building more and more fire stations, creating more jobs and keeping people safe in their homes.
‘Every time they make cuts to save money they are putting more lives at threat.
‘By cutting appliances, by cutting jobs, there are less firefighters to save lives.
‘This is not about austerity, this is about screwing more and more money out of the working man and woman.
‘They are screwing our jobs, screwing our wages and then they say we have to accept a pay freeze for two years and then they cut our pensions.
‘Who really runs the country? If an investment banker does not turn up for work you would not notice.
‘When it comes to their position on the fire service the Labour Party are a miserable disgrace!
‘This crowd that are in power now want to destroy what has taken 50 years to build up, they want to destroy the NHS.
‘The TUC had better wake up their ideas.
‘At the TUC conference last year they made a call to “look into the practicalities of a general strike”.
‘We all praise the Greeks, the Spaniards, the Italians but it is about time that we started doing it here in Britain.’
Karl Haider from Homerton fire station in Hackney, East London said: ‘Out of the four fire stations in Hackney, Kingsland Fire Station is going to close in its entirety.
‘I am angry, members of the public are angry.
‘If you live in the grounds of Kingsland Fire Station the next stations would take an additional five minutes depending on traffic to reach you.
‘Those five minutes can be the difference between life and death.
‘You can die of smoke inhalation in minutes.’