Fit for purpose?

If a firefighter comes to help you in an emergency, you want that firefighter to be fit enough to do the job. In Tower Hamlets especially, firefighters often have to cope with running up stairs to reach a mechanism to release a trapped person from a lift, to fight a fire in an individual property or to deal with a problem such as a gushing broken water pipe.

Most fire brigades in the UK measure firefighter fitness using a safety-related level of aerobic fitness. A new academic report has now been issued on the question of fitness, and it states that “firefighters with an aerobic capacity below an occupational fitness standard of 42.3 ml.kg-1.min-1 would not be guaranteed to be safe and effective in their ability to complete necessary roles within their occupation”.

It’s hard for the over 55s to meet the fitness standard. However, the Government is now trying to change the firefighters’ pension rules so that firefighters who do not meet the standard should nevertheless continue working until they are 60. The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) says that this is effectively increasing the retirement age and will put lives at risk. It has called on the Government to drop its unworkable changes to the pension schemes immediately.

Matt Wrack, FBU General Secretary, said: “It seems that central government doesn’t give a damn about the safety of firefighters. They are willing to risk the lives and safety of firefighters and the public simply to drive through their attacks on our pensions. As we have repeatedly demonstrated in three year’s of negotiations with Government, all the evidence shows that their pension changes are simply unworkable and take no account of the real work firefighters do or the standards they need to meet to do that work safely.

“These fitness standards are not just about protecting individual firefighters. If one member of a firefighting crew is at risk then the entire crew is also at risk, as is any member of the public involved in the fire or other emergency incident. This is about being able to undertake work in hazardous situations safely, professionally and effectively. It’s time for the government to stop putting politics ahead of public safety and work with firefighters to create a pension scheme that reflects the uniquely demanding role that we undertake.”

The Government’s own report by Dr Tony Williams, published in December 2013, found that 66% of people between the ages of 55 and 60 would be unlikely to meet the fitness standard used by most fire services and would therefore be unlikely to be able to work until the new normal pension age of 60. The Government has suggested that this problem would be resolved by adopting lower standards, dropping the current recommended safe standard of 42 VO2 down to 35. However, the FBU says the new report, Enhancing the health, fitness and performance of UK firefighters, shows the extreme risks to firefighters and the public associated with any such lowering of fitness standards to force through pension changes, which would put more firefighters at risk of heart attacks and sudden death — particularly attending or returning from emergency incidents. The report says: “A fitness standard should not be based on the fitness of those currently employed, but simply on the demands of the task itself.”

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