Firefighters to Strike...

[Dedworth]

How about a level playing field Joe:

Peddling images of wizened, elderly figures trying to climb ladders, the union tells us a rise in the retirement age to 60 will be a serious threat to public safety. But this is nonsense.
For a start, fire-fighters will be able to continue in service only if they pass a fitness test, as happens in other physically demanding, publicly paid jobs such as the police and the Army, where the retirement age is 60.
[I]Moreover, almost every other fire service in the world sets the retirement threshold at 60. Some have even higher age limits. In Germany, one of the best run, safety-conscious nations on earth, 65 is the retirement age, while in Australia it is 63.

Facts like those don't suit Joe's argument

[joebloggs]

Facts like those don't suit Joes argument

tell me dedworth as you know the armed forces so well, what is the maximum age a British solider can be sent to the front line, i wait your fact based reply. with link

[Dedworth]

Tell me Dedworth, as you know the armed forces so well, what is the maximum age a British solider can be sent to the front line, I wait your fact based reply. With link

Another drift off topic Joe. I can't be bothered to look it up but chalk & cheese Armed Forces are not Emergency Services.

Perhaps you ought to think of it another way - the youngest age an infantry private can go into combat, compared with the youngest a firefighter can read the risk assessment :-



A man who fell into a lake drowned after firefighters called to the scene said they could not enter the water if it was higher than ankle deep for health and safety reasons, an inquest has been told.

Simon Burgess, a 41-year-old charity shop worker died at Walpole Park, in Gosport, Hampshire, on 10 March. He is believed to have had an epileptic seizure either before or after falling into the water while feeding swans.

Witnesses raised the alarm, but the hearing was told on Tuesday that members of a fire crew refused to get to him because the water was more than ankle deep. Instead, they waited for a specialist water rescue team and Burgess was only taken out of the lake 28 minutes after the alarm was raised.

Gillian Hughes, 53, told the inquest, at Portsmouth coroners court, that she had phoned Emergency Services and urged them to rescue Burgess when they arrived. She said: "The firemen arrived with the police, and I said: 'He's only been there five or 10 minutes, so if you hurry you might save him.'

"He just said: 'We're not allowed', and I said: 'But that's your job.'

Hughes added: "I said to one of the firemen: 'Why don't you go in?' and he said they couldn't if the water was higher than ankle deep. I said: 'You're having a laugh'. He said: 'No, that's health and safety' – but I thought that was their job."

She said that another fire crew arrived and started walking around the lake, putting in a pole and measuring the depth but, by this time, Burgess had drifted from one side of the lake to the other.

Deborah Coles, the Control Room Manager at Hampshire Fire and Rescue, told the inquest that she took the call from Hughes at 12.17 pm and, within a minute, had sent a fire appliance, a water rescue trained crew and a water support unit.

"Police, ambulance and coastguard were also sent as standard for a water rescue," she added. "The specialist teams are there to deal with water which is over half a boot in depth. At 12.20 pm, the fire crew confirmed attendance and at 12.25 they told us a male was floating face down."

"The water support unit arrived at 12.31 pm. At 12.46, we received a message requesting our press officer attend the scene. At 12.52, an update came in saying a male had been recovered, and at 12.58 he was taken to hospital."

Burgess was pronounced dead at 1.42 pm after he was taken to hospital.

Dr Bret Lockyer, the Speciality Registrar of Histopathology, told the inquest there were signs that Burgess had fallen into the lake because of an epileptic seizure.

Burgess was diagnosed with the condition in 1987, and had unsuccessful brain surgery to ease the seizures. Lockyer said: "If he had been taken out of the water after 10 minutes, there is a slim chance he could have been resuscitated.

"It seems he had a seizure either before or while he fell into the water."

The hearing continues.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/f...e-firefighters

I'm not knocking firefighters they have their hands tied by the nanny state

[joebloggs]

It's 18 as the squaddies tell me.

Maximum age Leslie?

No comments on this Joe?

Moreover, almost every other Fire Service in the world sets the retirement threshold at 60. Some have even higher age limits. In Germany, one of the best run, safety-conscious nations on earth, 65 is the retirement age, while in Australia it is 63.

And they work on the frontline, fighting fires at that age, or the age they can claim their pension ?

Another drift off topic Joe. I can't be bothered to look it up. But chalk & cheese - armed forces are not Emergency Services.

Not good enough Dedworth, I know you know. What's the maximum age you can join the Army, something like 32? How long can you sign up for 4 or 8 yrs ?

So there are probably few fighting at the frontline who are over 40 I wonder why, Dedworth

But it's ok for a firefighter to be at the frontline until they are 60

[Dedworth]

Maximum age Leslie

And they work on the frontline, fighting fires at that age, or the age they can claim their pension ?



Not good enough Dedworth, I know you know. What's the maximum age you can join the Army? Something like 32? How long can you sign up for 4 or 8 yrs ?

So there are probably few fighting at the frontline who are over 40 I wonder why dedworth

But it's ok for a firefighter to be at the frontline until they are 60

Bit of a different front line Joe - in your Publicly Funded, Unionised, 'Elf & Safety' wonderland you'd like to see the Royal Marines called out to rescue a cat stuck up a tree 'cos they're dossing around in barracks rather than being in a combat zone

[joebloggs]

Bit of a different front line Joe - in your Publicly Funded, Unionised, 'Elf & Safety' wonderland you'd like to see the Royal Marines called out to rescue a cat stuck up a tree 'cos they're dossing around in barracks rather than being in a combat zone

Is it, in what way ? Carrying heavy equipment? Going into dangerous situations?

As for rescuing a cat, you were calling them for not rescuing a duck a few posts ago

Truth is Dedworth, they are too old. What other reason can there be? Yet firemen have to work for another 20 yrs