In a strongly worded statement, the Fire and Rescue Service Association said that the funding situation was now ‘critical’ and was threatening the lives of Islanders.
It said that if cuts proposed by the Council of Ministers in their 2010 Business Plan went ahead, it would be forced to:
• Reduce the overall number of firefighters.
• Attend some road crashes without potentially life-saving cutting equipment.
• Reduce the use of a ladder platform used to pluck people to safety from high-rise flats.
• Scale back community safety work.
Firefighter Craig Channing, the president of the Fire and Rescue Service Association, said: ‘The Fire and Rescue Service Association believes that the situation has now become critical. We are facing a funding crisis and we cannot continue to operate at these current levels.’
The warning comes just weeks after Home Affairs Minister Ian Le Marquand said that front-line services would not be affected by Business Plan cuts.
