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To: Mark Hardingham, National Fire Chiefs Council Chair

Defend firefighters' breathing apparatus safety procedures

Breathing apparatus (BA) safety procedures are borne from the death and injury of firefighters. They’ve been in place, helping to keep firefighters safe and alive, for decades. They are vital to firefighter safety.

The National Fire Chiefs Council’s (NFCC) attempts to rip up and remove BA safety in high rise building fires and deploy firefighters without safe air is unsafe, unlawful and unprofessional. It risks the lives of both firefighters and the public.

We demand you withdraw your imposed operating procedures immediately and listen to the professional voice of firefighters telling you it’s unsafe.

Dead and injured firefighters can’t rescue anybody.

Why is this important?

Firefighters’ BA is crucial for tackling fires safely in buildings, providing them with protection from death, injury and disease when working in oxygen-deficient, toxic and hazardous atmospheres.

Firefighters attending high-rise fires must wear their BA and be under air before moving beyond the bridgehead - a safe-air environment – to tackle the fire and rescue anyone inside the building safely.

New policy guidance issued by the NFCC would permit firefighters to be sent beyond the bridgehead without being supplied with safe air.

If firefighters are not using their BA to supply safe air when they pass beyond the bridgehead, it provides them with no protection at all.

This new procedure would:

- Expose firefighters to toxic smoke and other harmful substances that can cause death, injury, cancer & other diseases.
- Make dealing with any equipment faults extremely difficult.
- Make calculating how much air a firefighter needs to get out safely impossible.

If a firefighter runs out of air or gets in distress, they could be beyond the point of rescue. Firefighters’ lives, and public safety, are at risk if this policy is put in place.

Dead and injured firefighters can’t rescue anybody.

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Updates

2023-08-01 19:34:35 +0100

10,000 signatures reached

2022-07-26 18:16:33 +0100

5,000 signatures reached

2022-07-06 21:37:17 +0100

1,000 signatures reached

2022-07-06 20:27:16 +0100

500 signatures reached

2022-07-06 19:50:14 +0100

100 signatures reached

2022-07-06 19:45:32 +0100

50 signatures reached

2022-07-06 19:26:38 +0100

25 signatures reached

2022-07-06 19:18:35 +0100

10 signatures reached