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 The 256 strong tri-service force The Army has been called upon once again to provide fire fighters to cover the ongoing West Midlands Fire Brigade Strikes.
A joint force, made up of 78 Specialist Fire fighters from the RN and RAF plus 178 Basic Fire fighters from all three Services is responsible for a large densely populated area of responsibility, covering a service usually provided by 1,950 West Midlands Firefighters. The primary task of the force is preservation of life while providing an effective, but basic, fire fighting service, and not to try to fully replicate the service that is normally provided.
23 Pioneer Regiment RLC is the framework Regiment for the Joint Task Force with its CO, Lt Col Mike Bennett, as the Joint Forces Commander:
“This Joint Task Force, based on 23 Pnr Regt RLC, has been assembled in an extremely short space of time with service personnel from 73 locations throughout the UK. The Specialist Service Firefighters from the RN and RAF have integrated with the Basic Non Specialist Firefighters into highly competent emergency and fire service crews using red engines.
“Command and control of the operation is fully integrated with both West Midland Police and Fire Services, maximising our flexibility and effectiveness and reducing, wherever possible, response times in order to save lives”
The Force first deployed to cover the initial strike on Mon 14 Nov 05, which lasted for three hours between 1800 and 2100hrs. In all there were 18 incidents that needed a response and 23 appliances were deployed. The longevity and long term pattern of the strikes is unclear at the moment, with the second strike planned for Thu 17 Nov between 0700 and 1000hrs and the third strike for Mon 21 Nov between 0400 and 1000hrs.
Speaking in praise of the efforts of the team, Lt Col Bennett added:
“The success of our firefighting tasks on Monday night was a direct result of all the hard work of every member of the Joint Force in the last 2 weeks.”
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