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The investigation into the Atherstone warehouse blaze, in which four firefighters lost their lives, has found that officers were not given enough information about the premises before attending the scene. The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) yesterday issued an improvement notice to Warwickshire Fire & Rescue Service (WFRS)
as part of the continuing investigation into the causes and consequences of the fire on 2 November.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Alan Craddock, head of operations for the HSE, said: “As a result of our work on this investigation HSE has formed the opinion, based on the evidence we have seen, that the current arrangements employed by the fire and rescue authority do not comply with the statutory duties to provide its firefighters with all the information they should have to assist them in making the appropriate decisions when attending a fire.”
Under the improvement notice, WFRS has four months to gather information and take action on higher risk premises. The improvement notice indicates that the authority should make an action plan for the inspection of premises that ensures links are made between its relevant prevention, enforcement and operations sections, and which gives priority to higher risk premises.
Alan Craddock continued: “We recognise that there will be times when in order to protect the public, members of the fire service will expose themselves to danger and that it is not possible to eliminate all risks. That is not what the law requires. What is required is that precautions are taken that are commensurate with the risks and the circumstances.”
He added that there were “wider learning issues” so the chief fire and rescue advisor, Sir Ken Knight, will be issuing an alert to all fire and rescue authorities, reminding them of their legal obligations in gathering such information and making it easily accessible.
He emphasised that the improvement notice was not just a result of the Atherstone fire, but came after investigations showed deficiencies in the wider procedures of WFRS. In the last nine years, 18 improvement notices have been served on fire and rescue services in Britain. The authority has 21 days to appeal the notice.
Reacting to the news, president of the Chief Fire Officers’ Association, Steve McGuirk, said: “CFOA is considering the action taken by the HSE and the wider implications of the improvement notice for UK fire and rescue services. We will work closely with chief fire officer William Brown and Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service to assist them to scrutinise the issues outlined in the notice.”
Mr McGuirk continued: “Firefighters make decisions in a dynamic environment under very difficult circumstances. The welfare of firefighters is paramount in our planning and operations, and we will ensure that we capture the lessons that emerge from this improvement notice and that those issues are reflected in our future activities across the service.”
The rest of the investigation into the fire continues.