FBU Bethnal Green - Fire Brigades Union

Hose reel jets were being used in this basement fire, with fairly good throw, but littlevolume of water;Ventilation was carried out with no covering jets; Co-ordination of the ventilation process was poor, conditioned mainly by the poorperformance of the radios;Crews were committed into a basement with no communications equipment;BA crews entering the basement included short-service i.e. probationary firefighters;There was no organised clearance of obstruction;There was no organised clearance of flammables from the working area;The fire was not located or fought for a considerable time; Crews being recommitted despite it being essentially one large room and abasement that was alight; Despite suspected flashover/ backdraught the EVAC whistle was not used at anytime;A BA team member’s ADSU was sounding- yet no action was taken;There seemed to be an absence of a plan throughout the incident;There was little or no Command structure;No advice or prompts given re water spray, keep low etc.;There seems to be little or no local knowledge regarding the building itself;Despite crews hearing unexplained dull thuds or bangs within the incident there wasno despatch of an emergency crew with a spare set for crews that may havebecome trapped;Size of and lack of provision of emergency crews.SECTION 5: PROFILES OF CREW MEMBERSOur information regarding the profiles of personnel is limited. However, it is clear thatmany crews contained some inexperienced firefighters. Experience is a valuablecommodity, something that is not always given due recognition by fire servicemanagement. This is something which the FBU safety investigators do not agree with. Ithas become Brigade policy to commit inexperienced firefighters into incidents in BA whilstin their probation. There has never been consultation on this matter, nor has it beenpossible to discover when or why the Brigade policy was changed.9