One more last working class hero

There are strict rules that lay down how BA Control should operate. However, Jo’s evidence (in Chapter 3) suggests
that firefighters will break BA rules. There is nothing in what follows to suggest that Jo’s case is unique. Ken is fresh
from the training environment and should be expected to have high standards:
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Ken:
Put the stuff [BA] on, checked each other over and then the entry control bloke, he came and took the
tallies and read them. … It wasn’t so correct as it is in training .. em .. because he didn’t have the board
and that all set up.
(Brigade three, probationary firefighter, 8 months’ experience, age 19). [My emphasis and insert].
I interviewed Ken every week during his recruit training. He frequently relayed to me how the instructors had warned him
that he should resist any attempts by the watch to compromise the very high standards of BA safety he was learning. This
situation was of considerable interest to me, because I was aware that the watch would likely compromise BA safety
standards. To this end, I decided to follow up on Ken’s evidence to test his resolve. Despite my pushing him in this area,
Ken was adamant, he would not compromise BA safety procedures. Importantly Ken’s reaction would provide evidence
about the authority of the watch hierarchy. However, at his first ‘real’ BA incident, he did compromise and is still doing
so. I was not at all surprised that Ken (and the system) ‘failed’. Throughout my fieldwork, it became clear that if
following formal safety procedures would delay getting-in when firefighters’ protocols indicate it was safe to do so,
firefighters would get-in.
The example above provides clear evidence that even life saving BA rules are just another area where firefighters
informally establish watch protocols that supersede BO’s, as they do for anything else associated with firefighting. At
serious fires, where firefighters perceive a ‘real’ risk, their protocols will follow official procedures. At less serious
incidents, firefighters will compromise and manoeuvre round BO’s that slow them down. Their protocols will ensure that
BA tallies are somewhere safe, like the drivers’ hat, before they enter the building. Meanwhile, the person appointed as
BA officer will be helping the crew to get the equipment necessary for the firefighters to enter the building, only once this
is done will they set up the BA control according to BO’s. Even a FBU official acknowledges bending the rules:
Chris:
We had got it worked out, we put the tally in the board, we are systematic about it; our tallies stay
outside 191 . We don’t go through the whole procedure.
(Senior FBU representative). [My emphasis].
No firefighters I spoke with said that they follow formal BA procedures on house fires and initial calls to some larger
incidents. Once a fire had been ‘made-up’ and/or the danger increased, firefighters did not need to be ‘forced’ to follow
BA procedures: they make that decision for themselves.
5.4.5. ‘Drilling’
Most BO’s instruct firefighters to train every day. It is not unusual for the types of drill and the minimum time to be spent
on them to be written in BO’s; each firefighter generally has a training record, which watch officers and firefighters sign
to record the drill they have done. However, during a formal inspection, HMIFS (1996, section 5.38) 192 found that:
[Training was] just completing a paper record and then watches do as they wish in an unstructured and unmonitored
way when they feel it necessary to train.
I set out to establish if there was evidence to support what HMIFS had found. Jo confirmed she did not drill every day and
then she turned her answer into a complaint about senior officers:
Jo:
No we don’t. I think there are too many of them that are paid to come up with fantastic ideas .. that
aren’t realistic. That don't take into consideration station life .. how busy a station may or may not be ..
em .. and a lot of the senior officers are the people who didn’t stay on the station very long and didn’t do
a good job in the first place.
[My emphases].
Jo’s comment about there being too many senior officers is a very common response by firefighters. Her suggestion that
senior officers might not be very good firefighters innocently confirms the views of earlier informants. I asked Jo if the
station complies with the, “fantastic ideas,” she complains about:
191 In the past shortages of personnel meant that only the driver was free to do the BA control, but they were also required to work the pump, provide the
water and any other equipment. BA control was often neglected through expediency and making sure your tallies were outside was a first step to safety.
Currently it is standard practise for a BA control officer to be nominated at role call. However, as in the past, firefighters are hard pressed at the initial
stages of a fire and this duty may be left until after the ‘important’ things have been done. The designated BA control officer will then collect up the
tallies and put them in the board.
192 The HMIFS routinely inspect each brigade. As Chapter 1 suggests, this inspection started out as an audit of the provisions of the 1947 Fire Service
Act, but now looks at how efficiently Government money is being spent, if safety procedures are being followed and more recently equality
requirements: a public report is produced.