What are your views on retained ff's. Do you think they should have blue lights and sirens, or just blue lights. Currently, no brigades to my knowledge let retained ff's use blues and twos.

Nope, our local retained certainly don't.

They rush to the Fire Station (usually VERY fast - seen them occasionally), whack on the uniforms and are usually out of the station in 60-90 seconds. Very impressed with the response times - but then I live in a small town, and they all live locally. Our retained Firefighters cover our town and the surrounding villages (about a 6 mile radius).

I don't think they need blues on their cars, personally.

I think they should have them, as long as they are trained to use them, and are not abused. They should recieve annual training and annual assesments etc...

Really?

Is there a case for volunteer Ambo drivers then? Perhaps Doctors should get them too?

No need for them at all, it would open up the flood gates for everyone else wanting them.

I think they should have them they are fire fighters after all and as soon as their alerter goes of theyre on brigades time therefore are carrying out the duty of a fire fighter. Just the other day i was home on my lunch break in a marked car i had to pick up something and as i was pulling away from my house my neighbour whos a retained ff screeched out of his drive ahead of me when i got to the exit of my estate i saw the traffic was terrible so i wacked on my blues and set thew siren going and escorted him if he had his own blues he could get through himself without me

Agrre with everything Sarge said there.

Not every firefighter is trained to drive on blue lights just like not every police officer is.
How much would this cost to train every retained fire fighter to the standard required?

Besides, a lot of retained FF are in rural areas or areas that aren't very built up, so traffic etc is light.

Where I live is 3 miles from the airport and 8 miles from the city and is very built up. The fire brigade have been rattling on about making the station full time since the new one was built in 2000 and thus far nothing has happened about it. But i agree about rural areas, maybe just for suburban areas then

Yeah, that seems like a better idea.

How about some sort of Visor Sign? There are many on the market and are less of a talking point than blue lights!

However, these are illegal and FB's have a problem with them. Our Chief has asked the Chief Constable his views and he told her we could not use them!

Hands tied comes to mind!!

Sorry, but just to add to that, I personally dont think it would wise for all RFF's to be allowed Blues!

As someone said what about the cost implications of training? the litergation should you be unfortunate for you to have an accident on your way to the station?

I am sure some of you will say that MOP do not move for maked vehicles with blues and twos so why would they move for a visor sign. I feel that if you drive responsibly and show a visor sign rather than blue lights, the MOP will give way just as much with either!

Would you rather see someone die in a house fire, or some money spent on retained ff's having lights?

What about some stations having a trail period to see if blues would get them out of the station quicker?

Beleive me James I would not like to see anyone die in any fire,those are harsh words from you and will hit alot of people hard who attend such incidents. I am a Retained Firefighter so I know first hand the types of incidents RFF's are called to!

However, as discussed in others topics, if you see maybe 10 plain cars, some of which may not be in too good of condition as alot of RFF's use their families second cars with blue lights flashing in a small area of a town, would it not cause most members of public PANIC rather than thinking 'ill calmly pull over and let these vehicle pass!'

As for a trial, I think there maybe a issue regrding who can have blues on there private cars. I am aware that some officers (Flexi's) have blue lights fitted to their cars but I also understand that these are usually company cars leased by the FB for the use of attending large incidents.

I am well aware of the problems of attending the station for a 'Fire Call', I too have been frustrated when I have been stuck in heavy traffic and I do agree that RFF's need something to help us get to the station. Blue lights are not that 'something'!