A helmet, a helmet, my kingdom for a helmet...

With apologies to The Bard...

Perhaps I'm being a tad old-fashioned but I thought the raison d'etre (that's French for 'reason for existence') of a Fire and Rescue Service was to get those big red lorries out of the doors when an emergency arises. It may be as simple as a cat up a tree or it may be something that threatens human-life - a fire, an RTC, whatever.

To get fire engines rolling you need a crew. And that crew must have all its necessary PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) - fire tunic and leggings, boots, gloves and the all important yellow helmet. If a firefighter doesn't have the correct PPE they don't get on the fire engine - it's as simple as that. But that one firefighter going 'off the run' may, in turn, take the pump 'off the run' because of crew availability. Now the big red lorry doesn't go out of the door to save life and property.

So, it was with complete dismay, that yesterday, I witnessed a firefighter having to take himself off the run because he couldn't get a replacement helmet - his helmet of 14 years had finally gone to meet its maker. And why couldn't he get a replacement helmet? Because there were none in stock in stores...
Surely the one thing you never run out of in stores is PPE. Without it we cease to be able to operate properly.

I realise that very soon (but how soon) we are due to be issued with the new Galle helmets. But until we are there is the need to keep a buffer stock to meet the need for replacements.

We've run out of helmets in stores but I bet the stationery cupboards in Endeavour House never run out of pens!