Fire death ‘due to cuts’
Firefighters’ union the FBU has warned a county council that there could be more deaths, after it took 14 minutes for a fire engine to arrive at a recent, fatal fire. The local fire station four minutes’ drive away was closed last year.
The FBU wrote to the leader of Surrey County Council following a deadly fire in Banstead, saying that the delay in arrival was attributable to recent cuts.
In January, Surrey Fire and Rescue Service went ahead with the second phase of cuts under the Making Surrey Safer plan, which saw three fire engines cut and three fire stations closed at night. One of the stations closed was Banstead’s.
Joe Weir, South East FBU regional secretary, said: “This tragedy may have been avoidable, had the emergency response been quicker on the night. Sadly, thanks to repeated rounds of cuts, voted through by Surrey councillors and drawn up by the local fire chief, the service is spread too thinly across the county.”