Not to trivialise the main thrust of this article, that is the spate of moorland fires in the dry weather, this article has been presented in a sensational and misleading manner. The title clearly creates the impression that firefighters were airlifted to safety after risking their lives to put out a fire. Not so at all, they were airlifted simply to save them the hour and a half walk back; which is a good thing but not the same thing at all.
Nothing "sensational and misleading" about this article at all.
What the article does not mention is that at the time of these two fires there was a third, a house fire in Blaenau Ffestiniog. (We know because we were asked to send an ambulance to the house fire)
The crew at the first fire were airlifted out to the grass fire at Blaenau Ffestiniog so that the firefighters there could move on to the house fire.
To have a crew working 1.5 hours from their appliance is NOT conducive to good fire cover and has nothing at all to do with "saving the the walk back!"
Before attempting to trivialise such decisions, one should really consider the difficulties of providing potentially LIFE saving fire cover in rural areas and the drain such grass/mountain moorland fires have on such rural areas, and not compound the already poor journalism which appears to be as ignorant of the operational difficulties.
The ambulance services have their drunks diverting resources from REAL life threatening emergencies, the fire services have their mountainside fire bugs!
Was this fire in question over above Nant Gwynant and the T junction between capel curig to beddgelert road and the end of the Llanberis Pass road? I was watching that from up on Y Garn, I jsut thought it was gorse or heather burning. was a big fire, was going the whole time I was out which was around 5 hours, dunno how much longer the nthat it lasted though. Saw a big Seaking chopper in the area, was that waht that yused for the firemen?
No misunderstanding about the airlift, and no criticism of the fire service lads either. Saving the walk back- for whatever reason- is saving a walk back. What I was getting at was the headline which made it sound like the helicopter plucked them from the jaws of death as the fire they were seeking to extinguish turned on them. Just a cheap journalistic trick.
What I was getting at was the headline which made it sound like the helicopter plucked them from the jaws of death as the fire they were seeking to extinguish turned on them. Just a cheap journalistic trick.
Sorry Philip, but it must be your over enthusiastic desire to read things into articles that are just not there.
This is a quote from the BBC article,
County Operations Manager Glyn Jones, said: "The reason the fire crews were flown down in the 22 Squadron helicopter was that we needed to get the crews and resources back into the local community as soon as possible to provide the best cover for the public of North Wales."
No mention or inference throughout the article that the reason was anything other than maintaining fire cover.
Another revealing quote backing the dire straights they were in for cover at the time was Retained crews from stations at Betws-y-Coed, Porthmadog Llanberis and Caernarfon responded.
Even the headlines on both articles thus :-
Fire crews airlifted after blaze and Grass Blazes Stretch Crews To The Limit don't give the impression that you imply, and in fact the second also gives the main true thrust of the article!
These cheap journalistic tricks are just a figment of any detractor's imagination and the reports illustrate perfectly the REAL concerns for Fire cover during such events.
The ONLY reference to "danger" is the comment that these fire put EVERYONE at risk, which includes householders and motorists alike involved in "genuine" life threatening emergencies who will potentially have to wait whilst firefighters are all night fighting grass fires one and a half hours from their appliance.
The general public has NO idea how stretched the emergency services are at times, and any such journalism as this article is fair comment.
Well, that's a first, you have me apparently defending the press, still - fairs fair!
