It appears that choppyjock, H500 et al are giving the same grief to the lot over at FFRuNe (FireFighters Rumour Network)
Over there they argue that Fire appliances shouldn't be so big, as they have no need to carry so much water. There are loads of those hydrants and other water sources around, that could be used by a smaller cheaper vehicle that would and could, for all intents and purposes, be a pump and hose on wheels and would be able to do exactly the same job.
As you only need one person on the nozzle end, another at the on/off button end and no reason to carry anyone or anything else, these vehicles can be adapted cosy little things, such as the Kaa, no spare tyres need to be carried incase of puncture either. We are reminded that the Kaa is not only more efficient fuel wise, with it's smaller engine, we are told (as long as the fuel tank isn't more than quarter full), it can just about keep up with a fully laden big boy Fire appliance.
On the other side of their coin, they argue that there is also no need for this large combined Fire and Rescue appliance going out each time, as when the station is called out on a shout, they know, on being deployed, whether it is a Fire or a Rescue that they will be attending. So it makes sense to get rid of the larger appliance and have 2 smaller appliances, one being the pump/hose vehicle and the other a 'ladder and ropes' rescue vehicle.
Another thing that I noticed on that site is that they point out that fires never happen close by to the fire stations. Therefore a blue light run is always having to take place in order to achieve an 8 minute response time. Obviously they are in the wrong place and therefore a total reassessment of Fire Stations needs to taken at a national level.
The biggest reaction though from those at FFRuNe, comes from their argument that the tax payer has forked out a lot of money for all these nice and shiny all singing and dancing Fire & Rescue vehicles that spend a lot of time just sat in a station. Their own cars do more mileage in a week than their local fire appliance and therefore don't think the taxpayer is getting value for money.
Just off to the
BARs (Big Ambulance Rumour site) to see what they've been up to there and then to sus out
KEBABs (Keep England Bright And Barmy site)
