Greeners,

Just to add a little more of my two penneth,

You mention the frustration you have trying to get to an incident, where we all know you will be only assisting in the redirection of the traffic and rarely if ever be offering any lifesaving action.

"AS a HATO, it has been drummed into us that we are there to support and make safe, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY prevent further injuries."


"Yes its frustrating sitting in a queue of traffic"

Please TRY and think of the frustration a RFF has sitting in similar traffic and no one contemplating moving out of his way because he has no lighting or signage on his car for the MOP to think that he is a FF on an emergency call.

Then he eventually gets to the station to find its a house fire with persons reported trapped!

Instead of the 1minute it would take him on a day when the roads are clear, it has taken him 5minutes.

THATS 4 'EXTRA' MINUTES OF A CHILD BREATHING IN TOXIC FUMES!!!!

THATS 4 'EXTRA' MINUTES FOR THE FIRE TO TAKE A HOLD OF THE BUILDING MAKING IT MORE DIFFICULT FOR FIREFIGHTERS TO GAIN ACCESS TO THE CHILD!!

THATS 4 'EXTRA' MINUTES FOR THE REST OF THE FAMILY WHO WERE LUCKY TO ESCAPE TO WATCH IN TERROR AS THEIR HOUSE BURNS WITH THEIR CHILD INSIDE!!

NOW TALK TO ME ABOUT FRUSTRATION.!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dont think for one minute I have over dramatised this, as any Firefighter will tell you of the scene you are met with when you arrive on scene at a house fire!! Its not pretty!!!

Although I have over this post said that I do not think Blue lights on private cars are the way forward, beleive me if the brigade offered me the use of one and I thought it would stop things happening like the above I WOULD GLADLY USE IT! and anyone such as yourself harping on about obsession with blue lights would have one firmly and securely stuffed some where the sun dont shine!!!!

It doesnt matter how long it takes you to get to a job to redirect the traffic!! EVERY SECOND MATTERS TO A FIREFIGHTER!!

Just a quick note, please do not post in capital letters, as this is considered 'shouting' and is not pleasant. Please feel free to make a point, but capital letters should not be how you go about it. Orinoco.

I got to agree with Dave on this one. HATO are purely a support service such as AA, RAC, Utility services and highways agency in general. Blue lights are purely for emergency services as blue lights are only for emergency and HATO arnt an emergency service. It is more important life saving treatment gets to the casualties than for traffic flow to be kept moving. There is no viable argument to support HATO's having blues in my opinion

Well if that is the case then it's a sad state of affairs that the fire brigade employ retained fire fighters when they should employ full time ones, could it be that you could sue the fire brigade if your house burnt down as a result of a retained appliance attending your fire?
Food for thought don't you think?

With the fire service where I agree that every second does indeed matter, I can't get my head round the fact that somebody could be dying and the person who's going to save them is possibly stuck in a traffic jam. Maybe something similar to Doctors? Such as Red lights, so people still move out the way but technically they don't have to? Wouldn't lessen the importance of a blue light nor would it give the driver of the car any 'extra powers'

I thought doctors used green lights

PC

I couldn't agree more with you that in an emergency situation, every second does count, and I would dearly love to know why RRF's are not allowed to use B's & T's (or even Blues)

As far as I'm concerned any individual who has a role in first response and is in a position to save life should be given blues.

If they are restricted to life savers then when MOP's see them they should realise the importance of them.

PC.... I take my hat off to you for the job you do, and you should be given every assistance in carrying out that role.

An RFF has 5 minutes to respond to a Fire Call! That is the appliance pulling out of the station within 5 minutes from the alerters going off!!

I used that scenario as possibly the harshest one I could think of to get the point across.

As for sueing......well OBP I hope your never in the position to have the decision to make!!! Nice of you to respect the boys that do the job tho!!!

Indeed, but isn't red the stereotypical colour for the fire service?

I understand that the regs state that you can not show a red light to the front of a vehicle so that might knock that one on the head!

The best idea iv seen was on a TV doc and at the entrance to a town in the USA was the usual 'Welcome, please drive carefully' but then there was another that said with a picture 'Please Give Way For Vehicles Showing A Red Light - Firefighter On Emergency Call'.....or something similar!! Thought it was agreat idea!

Right you are, I'm stupid plus I'm only a special

I don't understand what you are getting at

Hey come on dont put yourself down!!!!..............leave that to Sarge and OBP !!!!lol

I'm not putting anyone down, I am merely stating my opinion which I believe I am entitled to do, and I still don't understand what you are getting at

Think it was a bit of a jokey comment to be honest, I took it tongue in cheek

Thats certainly how it was meant on my behalf!!