Quote:
Originally Posted by kestrelx
Health and Safety rules mean fire brigade can't use their initiative and go in 3ft of water!
This article talks about them being unable to save a seagull!
But in the recent past 2 people have drowned because the firebrigade arn't aloud to go in 3 ft of water!
A few years ago I called in a neighbour who'd gone out leaving a pan on the cooker! There was no fire! 3 Fire engines turned up and it took about 10 officers to remove the window to go in and turn off the cooker! Seemed like a waste of resources! 
This could happen in Accrington!
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Yet another non-story from the redtop rag based on a falsehood, leading to a 'let's bash the health and safety rules' again.
First of all, the HSE do NOT, per se, make these rules. They investigate accidents, incidents and near misses and apportion blame if safety procedures are lax.
It's usually the idiots who don't know how to create risk assessments that are to blame. The kind of people who write 10 pages about how to deal with wet floors in kitchens when a simple 'Danger - wet floor' sign is perfectly adequate.
Of course Firemen are allowed to wade into 3ft of water if human life is at stake, point here is we are talking, to quote Michael Parkinson, about a 'bloody bird'. There is no telling what debris, pothole, sinkhole or any other danger may have been submerged in that 'shallow pond'. Do you seriously expect a public servant to risk life or limb over what is basically a rodent of the air?
Does the person who called the fire brigade live in Trumpton? Did he expect Pugh, Hugh and Barney Mcgrew to turn up, save Sally Seagull and return her to a grateful Windy Miller?
Anyone with common sense would have called the RSPCA not the emergency services...it wasn't an emergency.
As for your cooker example, seems perfectly reasonable to me, these guys know all about the dangers of backdrafts, flashovers, and unattended pans on cookers. I'm also guessing that these engines were equipped differently to allow for any eventuality, although not being a fireman i'm prepared to be wrong on that one.