Bristol's new fire engines off road in row over safety

Four new fire engines worth £130,000 each have been temporarily mothballed at Avon Fire Service HQ – because firefighters won't drive them.

The vehicles have been parked up behind Bristol city centre's Temple Back fire station.

They will not be used again until health and safety fears have been resolved, firefighters have told the Bristol Evening Post.

Fire service officials say drivers need to be put through more training to learn how to properly drive the semi-automatic German-built MAN fire trucks.

But union leaders, speaking on behalf of firefighters, say mechanical work needs to be done on the trucks' gearboxes before its members will agree to use them. The dispute over half a million pounds of new firefighting equipment means crews are being sent out in old tenders, which have already clocked up tens of thousands of miles.

The disagreement is centred around the trucks' sequential semi- automatic gearboxes, which have a manual gear stick but no clutch pedal, similar to some of the latest top-spec sports cars.

For the last few months, two of the four engines had been based at Weston-super-Mare fire station, and the others had been on 999 watch at Brislington and Yate fire stations.

They were withdrawn from service last week after the Avon Fire Brigade Union (FBU) raised concerns.

The Bristol Evening Post understands that another four identical MAN fire engines are on order waiting to be delivered to Avon Fire Service.

Chris Jackson, branch secretary of the Avon FBU, said: "We raised health and safety fears and the management immediately took them off the road.

"They [the four fire engines] have been on the run for a couple of months but members have told us that there are a few problems and they are not happy.

"The gearboxes have more gears on them than they [the drivers] are used to and there was an issue with the way they slow down when drivers took their foot off the accelerator pedal. The gearboxes need to be recalibrated. We are driving emergency vehicles to answer 999 calls and we need to be sure they are up to the job."

One firefighter, who asked not to be named, said: "Most drivers think they've had the wrong gearboxes put on these new trucks.

"We need to be able to fully trust the vehicles we drive at speed on 999 shouts and at the moment we don't.

"This is a spectacular waste of taxpayers' money. Surely all this should have been sorted before the trucks were put on the road?"

Deputy fire chief Jerry O'Brien said the fire service would not be spending any more money on the four fire engines, which met all the required safety standards and guidelines set down nationally by the Government.

He said: "Some firefighters have had a go at us because they drive differently to the trucks they're used to and they don't like that.

"We've arranged for them to have more driver training and the four appliances will be off the road for as long as it takes to train them.

"In essence, there is nothing wrong with them. They have passed all the required safety checks.

"And although we are not using them on frontline duties in Bristol at the moment they are still available, and if a fire engine breaks down then we will use them."