Fire-ology firegeezer on 10 Aug 2008 02:14 pm
Haz-Mat Predisposition In Scotland
STRATHCLYDE FIRE & RESCUE SERVICE in Central Scotland is the UK’s 2nd-largest fire brigade. The department’s Chief Officer is Brian Sweeney, a dedicated career fire officer who also generates a lot of controversy.
Most recently he has just ordered a full upgrade of all the toilet facilities in the F & R headquarters, including laying out nearly $10,000 for a private bathroom in his office. The luxury toilet suite now has such amenities as a heated towel bar.
He says it’s ok because it’s been 20 years since the bathrooms have been refurbished.
Last year he kept the news tabloids occupied when he joined a $30,000-a-year private “dining club” and then started dating the director. That was not long after the memorable terrorist event when the attacker drove a jeep through the front doors of the airport terminal starting a large fire. When Chief Sweeney arrived on the scene he had his 9-yr.-old son with him and took him along to the forward command unit. According to some newspapers, the inquisitive youngster erased the whiteboard that showed all the apparatus positioning while the fire was ongoing. The F & R later denied that it happened.
On a more positive note, recently Chief Sweeney convinced the Fire Board of Directors to spend $60 million on a new training center. A truly state-of-the-art* facility, it will have the most advanced practical training scenarios including:
-A Residential Zone with a tenement building, high rise block, two semi-detached houses and a row of garage workshops. This area will be used primarily to teach firefighting techniques, but the village streets will also be the scene of staged road traffic collisions where firefighters will learn how to deal with such incidents.
- An Industrial Zone with an electric substation, chemical plant with butane gas burn-off pipe and railway tankers.
- A Transport Zone comprising a stretch of motorway with an on and off ramp, a railway with a train and a level crossing, and an underground tunnel and platform.
- A Water Rescue Zone and a Technical Rescue Zone.
A description of this new facility can be found HERE.
The bathroom story is in today’s Sunday Mail HERE.
Strathclyde Fire & Rescue WEBSITE.
