Fire fighters in general facts, and LFB.

Fire fighters in general facts and statistics:

In the UK there are more than 50,000 firefighters: it’s their job to prevent fires from happening – and to try to put them out if they do break out. Some firefighters work full-time and others are what’s called ‘retained’

Fire marshals and fire inspectors work to prevent fires by conducting building inspections, making sure that rules about fire safety are followed and often visit schools to teach about fire safety.

Fullfact.com (happened to the service since 2010)

The number of firefighters in England has decreased by around 6,800 since 2010, and by 8,600 including those who only work as on-call firefighters when needed. The number of staff working for fire and rescue services has decreased by around 11,500 over the same period.

^^^^^ WHICH IS WHY I WNATED TO DO THIS FOR MY CAMPAIGN – EDUCATING KIDS MORE ABOUT WHAT THEY DO SO WE CAN GET MORE KIDS TO WANT TO BECOME A FIRE FIGHTER.

Looking at firefighters specifically there are two different groups to count, those working as firefighters as a main job (wholetime) and those working as on-call firefighters when needed. There were 6,800 fewer FTE wholetime firefighters in 2017 compared to 2010. The number of people working as on-call firefighters has also decreased over that time by around 1,800.

The latest figures from the Home Office show that there were 346 fire-relateddeaths in England in the 12 months to June 2017. That’s a 20% increase compared to the year before (when there were 289) and the highest it has been since 2009.

Decreasing numbers of fire-related deaths can be linked to things like decreasing use of chip pans, a fall in smoking and in drug and alcohol consumption, increasing use of smoke alarms and preventative work by fire and rescue services.

From guardian online: Life as a fire fighter: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jul/03/the-life-of-britains-firefighters-my-helmet-melted-around-my-head

Even before Grenfell Tower, the job was never easy, plunging firefighters into life-and-death situations that can be hard to forget. And with unprecedented cuts to services, and ever-expanding responsibilities, morale is dangerously low.

For civilians, the experience of firefighters can be hard to imagine. But what does it mean to be one today after the Grenfell Tower fire, which Masoud’s Chelsea colleagues from Red Watch attended, and with the service adapting to cuts nationwide – 73 stations closed across the UK between March 2010 and March 2016, and the number of firefighters has dropped by 19%. What do firefighters do? Are the greatest challenges the fire itself, the sooting that sticks to hands no matter how many times they’re washed, the radios that are not always reliable – or horrific memories that can’t be laid aside

LFB FACTS:

The LFB is the busiest of all the fire services in the United Kingdom. It is the second largest in size, after the national Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, and has the largest number of full-time firefighters.

now when I started looking into the LFB I found so much I could talk about so decided to make an entree blog post dedicated about their website and the information they provide as that way it would make more sense to the readers and myself.