Christmas Day saw more than a third London’s fire engines go out of service due to lack of staff.
According to the Fire Brigades Union, (FBU), there were 50 engines (35%) that could not run on the December 25th dayshift.
Union blames the shortage on a mixture of Covid cases rising, government cuts and a recruitment freeze.
And with the need for fire and rescue generally increasing between Bonfire Night and New Year’s Eve, many fear the ‘serious impact’ on the capital.
Christmas Day saw more than a third London’s fire engines go out of service due to lack of staff. Pictured: Islington Fire Station
FBU statistics show that the FBU released data showing that most shifts between December 24 and 27 experienced a shortage at least 40 engines, owing to the inability to find staff to maintain them.
The Grenfell Tower fire was anything but devastating. A new 64-metre ladder device was inaccessible on the night and day of December 24.
Covid has killed 740 firefighters. This is more than 15% of all the workers.
FBU warned that this could escalate in 2019, with a mass exodus of hundreds of workers leaving ahead of any pension adjustments.
Jon Lambe is FBU London’s regional secretary. He stated: “Omicron has a direct effect on the amount of fire- and rescue coverage Londoners have.
“Over three quarters of all fire engines are not available is an alarming shortage which could lead to serious consequences.”
Omicron, however, should not have an impact on this scale. This is because the London Fire Brigade, which has seen almost one-fifth of London’s firefighters being cut, was left in such terrible condition by years of government reductions that it had been cut in 2010.
‘At first of the pandemic’, Londoners volunteered to drive ambulances or work in multi-agency teams taking care of Covid-related death.
“In some instances, members were forced to spend weeks without contact with their family or friends in fear of spreading the virus.
“But now, the tables have changed and the London Fire Brigade itself are in great difficulty.
“Now, we can see the impact of this pandemic on the service itself and it’s at a critical point.”
He stated that Londoners have to pay taxes in order to receive fire and emergency service. This is not being provided by the Government due mismanagement and cuts.
“As unions, we highlight this because it is simply not right. It’s also not safe.
According to Fire Brigades Union (FBU), 50 of the 142 fire engines (35%%) were unable to operate during the Christmas shift.
It comes as there were fresh calls today from Britain’s hospitality chiefs to cut the Covid self-isolation period to five days because they have ‘nobody left’ to serve customers due to the spread of Omicron.
Marcello Distefano is the managing director at San Carlo Italian Restaurant Chain. He admits that he has to close several restaurants because of staff shortages. However, staffing levels are still high enough to allow for New Years Eve.
He said that reducing the time of isolation to just five days would help. It doesn’t alter the fact we have to relocate people to maintain restaurants open. There is literally no one left so we will have to shut down several restaurants.
He stated that restaurants are being forced to cut back on their capacity because they don’t have enough staff to meet demand. Due to a lack of staff, menus are being reduced.
“The virus spread in the past seven to ten day, and we have seen an increase in people being off work.
“Tomorrow’s New Year’s Eve is tomorrow and we’re taking it day-by-day to determine if we’re able to keep our doors open.” We have to shut down several restaurants within the coming week.
Today, BBC Radio 4: He said that there was no bumper Christmas because of the Government’s gloomy warnings.
“We weren’t anywhere near the Christmas sales that we had hoped for,” he stated, noting that his hopes were fulfilled in the hope of seeing double the Christmas takings over the next few weeks.
The UK Government insists that no further changes are planned to reduce quarantine periods. After they dropped from ten days to seven with a negative flow test on day six and seven, officials said that rules will be maintained ‘under review.