It's Back!
Back on the 30th of March 2009 Tayside Fire & Rescue Joint Fire Board passed an unprecedented vote of 12 to 5 rejecting the proposals by Chief Fire Officer (CFO) Hunter to downgrade Balmossie Fire Station. This was the first time in Scotland that a fire board has gone against the recommendations of a Chief Fire Officer.
Now only nine months later and with total disregard for the views of the local community, Mr Hunter has re-presented exactly the same proposal for the downgrading of Balmossie Fire Station.
Last time it was a long, hard campaign which we WON! and we acknowledge that it was only achieved because of the fantastic support that we received from thousands of members of the public, local politicians and of course not forgetting Oor Lorraine Kelly.
Now we need your support once again to stop Mr Hunter from removing YOUR fire engine from the community.
If its not broken dont fix it!
Balmossie Fire Station has served the people of Monifieth, Broughty Ferry and surrounding areas since December 1982. At present the station is crewed by a full time crew who respond from the station 24/7 and a part-time crew who respond from their homes 24/7.
In August of last year, the Chief Fire Officer of Tayside Fire & Rescue Mr Stephen Hunter, submitted a proposal to the elected members of Tayside Fire Board effectively reducing the number of fire engines stationed at Balmossie Fire Station from two to one. These proposals included the removal of the part-time crew during the day and the removal of the full time crew during the evening.
At present if you require the services of Balmossie Fire station you can expect to have a fire engine mobile to your location within 1-2 minutes of fire control receiving your call followed by a second fire engine approximately 5 minutes later. If these proposals go ahead, during the day the second fire engine would have to come from Kingsway East Fire Station or Blackness Road Fire Station. That is assuming that these extremely busy stations are not attending another incident at the time. In the evening, (when most fire deaths occur), the first fire crew would have have to be mobilized from their homes delaying the attendance time to an incident by more than 5 minutes and again hope that the second fire engine is not attending another incident at the time.
We believe that these savage cost cutting measures are putting the lives of the people served by Balmossie Fire Station at risk but we also believe that with the public's support we can ensure that these frightening proposals do not become a reality.
To see the difference these minutes could make in a fire situation, please view the video below and pay particular attention to the timer to see how long it takes for the fire to quickly develop.