**LEAD STORY**
Union leaders of British Fire Brigades are warning that the looming financial crisis that faces fire brigades all over Great Britain could endanger the public.
Dennis Davis is the president of the Chief Fire Officers' Association in Cheshire. He recently wrote a letter to the British Parliament stating the scale of the problem and warning that fire brigades are spending about 80 million English pounds a year more than their government-imposed spending limits.
According to the Union president, the brigades are just managing to meet basic standards, such as responding to incidents in a timely fashion. But the budget crisis is taking its toll on training and on replacing old equipment.
Davis said in his letter to Parliament, "The fire service is facing a serious financial situation which needs to be remedied if it is not to create major operational difficulties. There are clear indications that the fire service, with its need for technical development to meet more complex hazards with better information systems and personal protection, is short of basic capital investment. Training in new skills is stagnating when it should be growing, and research into better options for public protection is slowing down."
Davis continued, "What has happened so far is that a series of issues like capital financing, pensions, fire service training costs, national employee conditions and standards of fire cover have been examined in isolation, only to find that they are one and the same problem."
The association that Mr. Davis heads represents senior fire officers in 57 British fire brigades. In his letter to the MPs in Parliament, he also said, "The fire engine arriving at your door may continue to be on time, but that certainly does not mean all is well. I feel further delay is dangerous. Dangerous to firefighters, who will become less and less well trained and equipped and dangerous to our communities, who will be denied the most sophisticated and technically advanced service."
About two weeks ago, firefighters in Scotland lobbied Scottish government offices in Edinburgh to call attention to a proposed ten percent fire service budget cut. Strikes by firefighters in other parts of Great Britain have been staged. The fire authority in London is still considering whether or not it will have to close fire brigade stations and lay off firefighters because of financial problems.
The British fire service is not the only agency facing these kind of financial problems. Similar situations are occurring in the United States. A prime example is the budget crisis that the District of Columbia Fire and Rescue Department in Washington has faced in recent years. Fire companies have been reduced from usually four men on a rig to three men.
What this does mean is that the fire service is probably going through a change, perhaps -- worldwide, and must come up with modern, cost efficient solutions to the ancient problem of fires and fire protection.
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