The Merseyside branch of the Fire Brigades Union warned it's "a matter of time before an engine can't get to an incident" amid staffing concerns.
The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has raised issues around staffing at a number of community fire stations across Merseyside. Lee Hunter, chairman of the FBU for Merseyside, told the ECHO several fire stations have been repeatedly understaffed since union members withdrew their labour at the start of December.
The FBU members voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action short of strike last month. Firefighters, Green Book staff and control members refused to undertake pre-arranged overtime from December 1 for a period of up to 6 months.
READ MORE: Merseyside firefighters to take industrial action for up to 6 months
The union said the decision was made after its members faced a reduction in staffing numbers and new shift systems. Mr Hunter claimed a number of Merseyside areas were only fully staffed before the industrial action due to fire staff undertaking overtime.
The FBU claimed between December 1-20 there had been nearly 750 hours of fire appliance unavailability due to the staffing shortfalls. This means certain parts of Merseyside have had to rely on fire cover from neighbouring areas.
Mr Hunter told the ECHO : "Our members voted overwhelmingly, around 88%, in favour or refusing to carry out pre-arranged overtime. We're seeing staff sent out to cover staffing shortfalls elsewhere.
"The community stations were run on staff's goodwill in carrying out overtime. Disaster has only been avoided by luck. It's purely a matter of time before a fire engine can't make it to an incident."
A spokesperson for Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service confirmed to the ECHO fire engines can become unavailable in certain areas to try and minimise the overall response times across the whole of Merseyside.
Speaking previously about the decision to withdraw members' labour, FBU Merseyside said: "[We have] made no demands which could result in less fire engines, less fire stations, slower response times or fewer staff in our fire control room. The Fire Brigades Union has always fought to maintain fire cover."
Mr Hunter added: "We are in a time of austerity. We are asking for Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service to negotiate with the FBU for a fair deal for everyone."
A spokesperson for Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service told the ECHO : "Despite austerity, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority has increased the number of fire engines and firefighters it has available to protect the public from 26 to 31 in recent years (2018-2022) – however when staff fall ill at short notice and book sick it can have an impact on the levels of fire engine availability despite these increases.
"At this point operational decisions on the deployment of those fire engines are made in order to minimise the impact on our overall response times to the public across the whole of Merseyside. This can on occasion mean that fire engines become unavailable in certain station areas, with the response coming from a neighbouring station – an example would be the Toxteth fire engine covering the Kensington area during the day as is the case during the evening period.
"The loss of a fire engine based on short term absence can on occasion be offset by the use of overtime. However as the FBU have chosen to introduce a ban on overtime that option is no longer available to the Service. Despite the overtime ban the response standard across Merseyside and indeed in the areas highlighted continues to be met."
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