[Retlaw]

Originally Posted by Guinness

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.

It has been standard practice for donkeys years, that a minimum of two Fire Appliances attend all house fires.
As for the Tip Rat in a pond, or a cat up a tree, why should any one risk life or limb, when a good shot will solve the problem. Too many tree & bunny huggers, creating problems that don't exist.
Retlaw.