Fire Free Fiasco
Hello Viewers. Fire Free Fire-Fighter Holman reporting for duty.

 

With the crazy scheme to make Hayle a 'Fire-Free Zone' well advanced, lo and behold it has been proposed that Camborne fire station which serves Hayle will be downgraded meaning that not only will Camborne suffer, but as Camborne also provides the fire cover for Hayle, Hayle will also suffer.

 

Currently, Camborne is a fully manned station providing 24hr cover, if the firefighters from Camborne are called out to an incident, then retained firefighters are called in to ensure that if there is another shout then an immediate response is possible.

 Fire Free Fire-Fighter Holman

 

The proposal currently on the table is that in future the retained crew would only be called in if the normal crew were on an incident outside of Camborne and the powers that be are trying to sell this to us as providing better cover for Hayle.

 

The argument that Hayle would be better served is however, fatally flawed. By some twisted logic a retained crew would only be called out if there was an incident outside of Camborne (in Hayle for example), so Camborne would be OK. If however, there was an incident in Camborne, with no retained crew brought in as back-up another shout in Hayle would have to wait until either the incident in Camborne was dealt with or until another crew could be called in, assembled and dispatched.

 

Hayle is already dangerously close to the limit of Camborne station's response time, some would argue that it is already outside the limit. These proposals can only increase the time that it takes to attend an incident in Hayle and will put lives at risk.

 

While resistance to a fire station for Hayle continues, the County Councils own statistics have shown that in 2003, the latest year for which figures are available, fire brigade attendance was required 119 times in Hayle - about one incident every three days on average. This is more incidents than at Fowey, Looe, Mevagissey, Mullion, Padstow, Polruan, St Kevern, St Mawes, Wadebridge, Perranporth, St Columb or St Just, each of which is considered to require its own fire station. Hayle remains the largest town in Cornwall without its own fire cover, while many smaller towns have cover (as above). Why is that?

 

Despite the Fire Free Zone initiative, incidents requiring attendance of a fire appliance continue to run at about one every three days, with a total of 10 in January as follows:

 

Primary Fires 2
Secondary Fires 1
Car Fires 1
Road Traffic Accidents 1
Special Service Calls 2
Auto-triggered alarms 1
Chimney Fires 2

 

So while all the council officers and politicians talk, talk and talk up at County Hall, stopping only to quench their thirsts on some of the £74,000 worth of bottled water that they consume each year, Hayle is told there is no money for a fire station and that existing cover is going to be downgraded. Despite more talk from Hayle Town Council that they will fight tooth and nail to see Hayle get it's own Fire Station, it remains just talk. As far as we can see no effort has been made at all. Its nice to know our council tax, including an ever higher precept from Hayle Town Council is being put to good use and that they have our interests at heart.

 

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