The West Sussex Fire & Rescue Stop the Cuts group
is concerned that survival chances for passengers and crew, in the event of a
crash at Gatwick Airport, have been seriously reduced by County Council cuts to
the fire service. A spokesperson said, “Not only have the cuts put 800,000
residents in greater danger, but millions of passengers who use the airport each
year will be doubly unlucky if they are in a crash at Gatwick”.
The spokesperson continued, “We all hope we are not involved
in an aircraft crash, but there are several around the World every year. When it
happens we rely on the emergency services arriving quickly to rescue survivors
from the wreckage. Sadly the response from West Sussex Fire & Rescue
Service is now slower and smaller than ever, despite aircraft now carrying more
people”.
The spokesperson added, “The airport is not responsible, as
they have an effective fire service, but for crashes they need significant support
from local emergency services. The only criticism of the airport is that,
according to the County Council, they raised no objections to the cuts[1]”.
Retired Fire Service Operational Planning Officer Tony
Morris said, “Not only do the cuts affect survival chances at the airport, but
if a plane comes down beyond their very small response area, the airport’s fire
service does not respond. Survivors would then be totally reliant on the hopelessly
inadequate local fire service response. Firefighters would do their best, but
the odds would be stacked against them”
West Sussex County Council cuts include:
- The two nearest fire engines to the airport could reach the airport in two minutes, but they were removed in the last round of cuts.
- The next nearest fire engines at Crawley have just been cut from three to two.
- Response to the most serious category of emergency has been cut from ten fire engines to just six, despite aircraft now carrying more passengers. Other essential specialist vehicles have also been removed from the automatic response.
- Together with cuts in crew numbers, instead of around 90 firefighters being sent, less than 50 will arrive. Yet they know that at the Kegworth crash in 1989, over 100 hundred firefighters were needed to rescue the 82 injured survivors.
- The Heavy Rescue Tender, with specialist rescue equipment, is no longer sent when emergencies are declared. Gatwick is now the only international airport in Europe not to get a specialist rescue vehicle from their local fire service when aircraft are in trouble.
- Even worse, when an emergency is declared the two fire engines from Crawley are sent, but no firefighters are left to crew the Heavy Rescue Tender. If a crash then occurs another vehicle will have to be sent from 35 miles away.
- Whilst they have stopped sending this rescue vehicle, they do send a high reach aerial appliance, just in case the aircraft is a large Airbus A380. To do that, but not send the rescue vehicle, which would be essential at any crash, makes no sense and indicates that professional judgement is either flawed, or cuts are forcing these dangerous changes.
- Foam supplies have been removed from the nearest station to the airport and now have to be sent from 50 miles away. Last time these were sent to an emergency at the airport they took over an hour and a quarter to arrive.
- Inadequate crewing across West Sussex also means that many of the nearest fire engines and support vehicles are often unavailable. As many as 16 of the nearest 22 fire engines have been without crews on occasions, and response times have increased dramatically.
- At a recent incident in Crawley, cuts and inadequate crew levels showed that the nearest ten fire engines included two from Brighton, nearly 30 miles away. With Gatwick located in the Borough this is a disgraceful level of protection.
Mr Morris concluded, “When early warning is received of an
aircraft in serious trouble at Gatwick, the public expect the local fire
service to be there with enough resources to give them a good chance of
survival. It is shameful that West Sussex County Councillors are failing to
ensure that happens.”
West Sussex Fire
& Rescue Stop the Cuts
ENDS
Further
information
Email: wsfrsstopcuts@aol.com
Facebook: West Sussex Fire & Rescue Stop the Cuts
NOTES
1. At all the other airports in the UK that handle the Airbus
A380 aircraft, the airport authorities have equipped their own fire service
with an aerial appliance. Gatwick rely on the local fire service to send one
from Horsham (16 miles away), or from Worthing (35 miles away).
2. The Kegworth Comparison – this crash in 1989 involved 118
passengers, 82 of whom were seriously injured. Their rescue required the
airport fire service plus 22 fire engines and over 100 firefighters from local
fire services.
The latest aircraft using Gatwick include the Airbus A380,
versions of which carry over 550 passengers. Instead of increasing the response
to cope with the greater challenge, West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service has
quite unprofessionally reduced it to the lowest it has been since the 1950s.
3. Tony Morris
responded to the Airports Commission consultation to highlight these problems.
A copy of his submission is attached below (Annex 1).
Annex 1
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From
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Tony Morris tonyacmorris@aol.com
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|
To
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airports.consultation airports.consultation@systra.com
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Important factor omitted from review of possible second
runway at Gatwick Airport
Dear Mr Davies,
I am writing to you as an individual. I am now retired, but
was an Emergency Planning Officer for West Sussex County Council (1999 to 2014)
and before that the Operational Planning Officer for West Sussex Fire
& Rescue Service (1993 to 1999). In both posts I worked closely with other
emergency services and the airport operator on planning for all types of major
emergency at Gatwick.
There appears to have been an important omission in the
debate regarding a possible second runway at Gatwick Airport. That omission
concerns consideration of the ability of hospitals, the emergency services,
local authorities etc. to cope with an aircraft accident, or other major
incident at the Airport.
I believe this aspect is even more vital than the
infrastructure to support the airport. It is becoming increasingly clear that
these services are less well able to respond to an incident at Gatwick than
previously, primarily as a result of budget cuts. Whilst I am less familiar
with their ability at Heathrow, I believe they have significantly more resources
close to the airport. In addition, whereas West Sussex Fire & Rescue
Service (WSFRS) has removed the two nearest fire engines to Gatwick and intend
to remove the third nearest, London Fire Brigade has increased resources in the
vicinity of Heathrow. The attached maps illustrate the disparity between the
airports with regard to the location of supporting fire stations.
It is quite clear that the ambulance service and hospitals
in Sussex are struggling to cope with winter pressures, so their potential to
also cope with hundreds of casualties from an air crash must be in serious
doubt. Sussex Police have also suffered staffing cuts that affect their ability
to deal with major emergencies. The ability of West Sussex County Council's
Social Care department to provide support to uninjured survivors and relatives
of the injured or deceased is another vital service that has been affected by
budget cuts.
The latest aircraft using Gatwick include the Airbus A380,
versions of which carry over 550 passengers. When you consider that the
aircraft involved in the Kegworth air crash in 1989 was only carrying 118
passengers, you get an idea of the significantly greater demand on local
services if a larger aircraft crashes at Gatwick. At Kegworth 82 people were seriously
injured and it took over seven hours to free them all from the wreckage. The
local authority fire service needed 22 fire engines and over 100 firefighters
at the incident.
It should also be borne in mind that the Civil Aviation
Authority say that planning should consider more than one aircraft being
involved in an accident, and the surroundings of the Airport should also be
taken in to account. With a busy commuter line at the end of the runway, an
aircraft collision with a crowded commuter train must also be considered.
Casualties could run in to the thousands at Gatwick.
West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service's cuts and crewing
difficulties have made the fire and rescue service much less able to cope than
in previous years. The well publicised emergency landing at Gatwick Airport at
the end of December showed that, instead of resources increasing to cope with
increased risk, they have actually been reduced. The time taken to get
resources to the airport has increased significantly, as they have to be sent
from stations much further away. The proposed 2015-16 cuts will make this even
worse.
When aircraft carried fewer passengers, WSFRS were able to
get the full response to the airport by sending fire engines from fire stations
that were within 13 miles of the airport. At the 29th December 2014 incident,
despite having reduced the scale of the response, it had to come from fire
stations up to 40 miles from the Airport. A special vehicle carrying foam, that
used to be at the nearest fire station to the airport, took an hour and a
quarter to arrive in December. A specialist rescue vehicle is no longer sent
automatically, because of crewing shortages. If an aircraft does
crash, then that rescue vehicle will have to be sent from at least 30
miles away. With the potential for several hundred trapped and
injured casualties, that is just not acceptable.
Please note that the Airport Fire Service depend heavily on
support from WSFRS. The Airport Fire Service is only required to provide a
full response to crashed aircraft within the airport boundary, and a reduced
response to crashed aircraft very near to the airport. Beyond that small area,
the survival of casualties is wholly dependent on an increasingly under
resourced local authority fire and rescue service.
This situation is unacceptable for one runway, but I
appreciate that is beyond your control. However, recommending a second runway
at Gatwick would increase capacity and the likelihood of an accident. To do so,
whilst aware of the poor state of the local services to respond, would seem
most unwise.
I would urge you to properly consider this aspect before
deciding on your recommendation regarding Airport expansion.
Yours sincerely,
Tony Morris
Proximity of fire stations
Heathrow
Gatwick
Please note that Surrey Fire
& Rescue Service are building a fire station at Salfords, for one fire
engine, about five miles from the Airport.
[1] Report by Executive Director
Communities, Public Protection and Chief Fire Officer – “The Service has met with the Gatwick Airport Fire
Service Manager, who raised no objections to the proposals".
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