THE FIRE Brigades Union is becoming more and more concerned at what it sees as "unnecessary risks" being faced by its members in Tayside Fire and Rescue while attending flooding incidents in the area.
However, the Chief Fire Officer Stephen Hunter believes that his men are among the best equipped in Scotland to deal with this kind of emergency.
John Duffy, FBU regional secretary, explained: "We have watched over the years our members taking eno
rmous risks to their own personal safety.
"Firefighters like Tom Brown who tied a rope around himself and entered the Tay in Perth and rescued a young lady. He was untrained in water rescue but still tried and made the rescue.
"Last weekend we had flooding again in Angus. Once more our members were mobilised to these incidents and once more our members were taking risks and entering water without the proper training, inoculations and welfare arrangements.
"This is the second time in a matter of weeks that the service has had serious flooding, yet we continue to see our members trying their best with little training, without the proper tools and wearing completely the wrong protective equipment."
"It does beg the question of how serious some managers are about our safety.
Roddy Robertson, executive council member, said: "It is only a matter of time before we pay the ultimate price, as happened in Greater Manchester a number of years ago when we lost a firefighter who was not fully trained and who had entered water to attempt a rescue.
"This is a foreseeable occurrence and not an accident. If the service wishes to use our members for water rescue then train them and stop playing Russian roulette with our member's lives.
But Mr Hunter says that local firefighters are well trained and ready to respond to any situation that arises.
He said: "This statement from the Fire Brigades Union does not reflect the current situation in Tayside Fire and Rescue in relation to the training of firefighters to respond to flooding incidents or to the equipment and personal protective equipment they have been provided with to enable them to perform this important aspect of their emergency response role.
"Tayside firefighters, based at Kingsway East Fire Station in Dundee and Perth Fire Station, are among the most highly trained and best equipped in Scotland in relation to their ability to assist our communities in times of flooding.
"These specially trained firefighters supported their colleagues from fire stations across Angus to assist the communities affected by Sunday's torrential rain, including those worst affected in Carnoustie, Arbroath and Brechin."
