Fires down nearly 50 per cent (From Harrow Times)

Some of the dramatic reduction in calls to fires is down to the excellent work that local firefighters have done in educating the community in their own homes during visits to fit free smoke alarms and carry out home fire safety visits.
Perhaps playing a larger part in the reduction in shouts are the relatively recent changes brought in that see only one appliance mobilised to calls originating from automatic fire alarm systems,and an increase in " call challenging" whereby the public are often refused a fire brigade attendance to calls such as person locked in or out,person shut in lift,animal stuck in precarious position etc.These types of call used to be attended without question to prevent members of the public from being tempted to put themselves in harms way by dealing with it themselves.
With the announcement that call volumes are seemingly reduced it is only a short way to declaring the Borough no longer needs two fire engines.
Unfortunately for the Brigade you can not get around the fact that firefighters need a minimum of two fire engines to deal with compartment fires safely and three fire appliances to deal with road traffic collisions.
If Harrow loses either of it's fire engines the service provided to residents and visitors to the Borough will definitely be reduced.The extra 4 or 5 minutes it takes for appliances to reach the scene can be the difference between life and death.
With Harrow being the Borough that already has the least amount of fire engines in London, it can not afford to lose one of its two engines in the forthcoming cuts.
Attending fire calls only ever made up 5% of a working shift,with the rest being dedicated to training on the multitude of different types of equipment fire crews are expected to master,along with community fire safety education and the regulating of commercial premises for fire safety via inspections.All of the non fire call work will still need to be done ,the oly difference is that less people will be doing it.

The latest information suggests that the London Fire. Brigade intends to re move 60 fire appliances from service and permanently close 18 of its 112 fire stations.
Only two years ago £30 million pounds of reserves were handed over to the Metropolitan Police to help them balance their budget,I doubt if they will ever be given back to he Fire Authority.
Lobby our local politicians now to stand any chance of keeping both of Harrows fire engines.

No local politician has made any comments about this situation and local residents feel they are not taking the matter seriously but remember we voted you in and we can also vote you out of office!

The silence on this matter by our GLA member, two MPs and all party Councillors is DEAFENING. I would not like to have any Harrovian's death on my conscience.Will the Harrow Times have any luck in persuading these publicity shy politicians to state their views?

Why is there a proposal to cut Harrow's fire service to one fire engine and five fire fighters?

The reports in the Harrow Times show there have been many fires in Harrow recently

Guy Fawkes night and Diwali happen soon and we will need our fire fighters to have the resources to deal with any problems.

If you are awaiting the arrival of a single fire engine and five fighters and the chance that help may come from another Borough, that is late arriving, I do not suppose you would be calming yourself by recitng the facts and figures quoted in the above article.

I am sure jackdaw knows the reason for our Politicians silence is because they would rather deny any knowledge that these cuts are going to be made right up until the cuts are announced.
Once they are announced, that will be the cue for much hand wringing and shrugging of shoulders that there is nothing we could do at this late stage.
A statement from both Councillor Shah and Councillor Hall laying out exactly where they stand on the issue of cuts in general and the possibility of Harrow losing one of its two fire engines.
I suspect that come the new financial year in April 2013 the Borough will still have two Councillors on the Fire Authority and only one fire engine!
Voters would do well to remember the performance of Councillors Hall and Shah on this issue when it comes to the local elections.