A colossal blaze at a former school in Midlothian, Scotland is being treated as suspicious according to the police who are investigating the circumstances. The old Paradykes Primary School in Loanhead was subject to extensive damage as a result of the fires, which took place on the 4th November. At 9:37pm, emergency services were called to the building to try and tackle the fires, and upon arrival, they found the building “well alight”. Authorities were initially alerted to the possibility of a person being trapped inside the building, however it was later confirmed by officials that there were no casualties from the blaze. As part of their investigation into the fire, police said that they would be extensively delving into the CCTV footage, as well as conducting door-to-door inquiries, to try and establish some leads. Speaking about the investigation, Inspector Neil Mitchell said they had a fair amount of information that could be of beneficial use, but appealed to the public to try and assist with the police in any way they can moving forwards. “We have information that a number of youths were seen in the area near to the building prior to the fire starting,” Mitchell said. “We are appealing for anyone who may have been nearby and saw any youths at the building, or have information relating to the fire, to contact us on 101. “We’re also keen to hear from anyone who may have their own CCTV system in or around the area of Mayburn Walk to get in touch.” Appliances from Dalkeith, Penicuik and Liberton came to try and assist with the fires, with pumps and hoses being used to try and extinguish the flames. Speaking about the incident, a Scottish Fire and Rescue spokeswoman praised their collective efforts, and stated that the firefighters battled the flames externally given the nature of the building. A Scottish Fire and Rescue spokeswoman said: “They fought the fire externally as the building was fully involved.” Fire crews were still on hand at the scene until 7am on Sunday the 6th November to dampen down the affected areas, which is essential as it prevents future fires from breaking through in the same area.

The Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Surrey has announced that as he will not be taking over responsibility for the fire service, for the time being, the Surrey Fire and Rescue Service (SF&RS) will stay under Surrey County Council’s (SCC) control. Despite announcing this however, the PCC – David Munro – is trying to make sure there’s a closer collaboration between the local fire stations, the fire and rescue service colleagues down in Sussex, and the county council itself. In addition to this, Munro revealed that he’s “prepared to look at his decision again” is this fails to happen for whatever reason. The announcement itself keeps in line with the government’s brand new Policing and Crime Act (2017), which openly encourages emergency services to try and be more collaborative, while also giving PCCs the option and ability to take the reins of fire and rescue authorities, should they feel the need to do so. Munro did categorically state that he isn’t going to take over governance of SF&RS, however he left the door open for that to happen in the future by declaring that the decision is in place “for the time being”. Currently, SF&RS is managed by SCC, however this could default to the PCC should it fail to successfully collaborate with both neighbouring authorities and local fire stations over the next six months. Back in January this year, Munro openly called for better cooperation between both Surrey police and SF&RS when his office led a working group attempt to encourage closer working ties. This announcement was followed by a “detailed project”, which will be assessing whether a change of governance would benefit the residents of Surrey, while also running the rule over the county’s fire and rescue service’s future.

Close to 1000 people have had to up and leave their homes in north-western Italy as a direct result to forest fires raging. The fires – which have allegedly been started by arsonists – have impacted the towns of Venaus, Mompantero and Susa in the Susa Valley near the French border the most since they began. The threat levels have forced around 200 residents of a senior citizens home to evacuate the blazes, which have been going on for weeks now. The green political grouping Verdi have claimed that more than a colossal 135,000 hectares of Italian land have been burned in 2017, which is three times the amount that caught fire in 2016.

Fire crews in Halton, UK have been recognised with a global award as a result of their lifesaving work which goes beyond the expected remit of firefighters. On their safe-and-well visits, the firefighters have been carrying out pulse checks as well as providing their usual support and advice to residents, some of which can be vulnerable. As a result, the collaboration between Halton Borough Council’s Public Health department, the Innovation Agency, Cheshire Fire and Rescue service, and the Halton Clinical Commissioning Group, has ended up winning a Showcasing Best Practice Award at the Heart Rhythm Conference, which is an international event. The pulse checks have proved vital in some cases, as they have identified irregular heartbeats in 29 different people, which has potentially ended up saving those residents from life-threatening strikes, in eight months. Firefighters are using MyDiagnosticks handheld testing devices for this, which were funded the Innovation Agency. The devices essentially act as mobile electro cardiogram (ECG) monitors, which are capable of detecting an irregular heart rate. Halton Borough Council’s Public Health department and the Halton Clinical Commissioning Group delivered the project, which has now seen Cheshire fire crews actively using the devises regularly to carry out the checks required. In the eight months that fire crews have been using the devices, 1017 pulse checks took place, with 29 people having an irregular pulse. The residents affected have since made and attended appointments and are all now having treatment, which in turn reduces and avoids the risk of a serious illness. Operational firefighters carry out 700 visits a week across Cheshire on average, and is added to the ever-growing list of duties that Cheshire firefighters carry out. In addition to fitting smoke alarms and offering fire safety advice, firefighters in the Cheshire region also provide information on alcohol and smoking cessation, avoiding slips, trips and falls, while also offering bowel cancer screening kits.

​The Chapada dos Verdadeiros national park in Goiás, central Brazil, has been attacked by a fire which has completely devastated almost a quarter of the protected area. Speaking to BBC Brasil, the park’s director Fernando Tatagiba believed that arson was the cause of the blaze at the Unesco World Heritage site, which is famed worldwide for its biodiversity, on the basis that the fire had started from inside a firebreak. A firebreak is an area specifically cleared of vegetation by park officials in order to prevent fires from spreading. Park officials have confirmed that at least 54,000 hectares (130,000 acres) have been crippled by fire so far, and despite over 100 people tackling the blaze, it’s still not extinguished – though it is expected to be put out very soon. The park has around 60,000 years per annum, however the fire has meant that the park is closed at this moment in time. Officials have stated that this fire is the worst in the recent history of the park. The park itself was created in 1961 by the then Brazil president Juscelino Kubitschek. Earlier this year in June, the Brazil government increased the park’s overall size from 65,000 to 240,000 hectares, which was received tremendously by environmentalists. At least 22% of the area has been ravaged by the fire, which started on the 17th October.

Fire chiefs have stated that they believe all new and refurbished schools within the UK should have sprinklers fitted. As it stands, new school buildings in Wales and Scotland have sprinklers as mandatory requirements, however, this doesn’t apply to both England or Northern Ireland, prompting the National Fire Chiefs council to push for change. Dany Cotton, the London Fire Brigade Commissioner was absolutely livid and directly accused the government of “playing with children’s lives”. Ever since the Grenfell Tower disaster in June, fire safety in public buildings – such as schools – has been a topic that’s been well and truly under the microscope, especially as there are around 700 school fires a year in England. In 2016, the Department for Education – who claim the safety of children is their priority – began a consultation on new draft guidance, which had stated in black and white that building regulations no longer needed “the installation of fire sprinkler suppression systems in school buildings for life safety”. “Therefore,” the DfE added, “[guidelines] no longer include an expectation that most new school buildings will be fitted with them.” Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Ms Cotton was outraged when she saw the draft guidance, and was staggered that it isn’t compulsory, while stressing that she hopes that it doesn’t take a school fire for the government to realise. “I think it was outrageous,” Cotton said. “I thought, ‘How can we play with children’s lives like that?’ I just do not understand why it wouldn’t be made compulsory and wouldn’t be made a requirement to fit sprinklers in schools at new-build stage. “And what I don’t want to see is a very large school fire to be the thing that brings about that change.” Following the Grenfell disaster, the consolation was dropped, which meant that the guidance was never actually changed. It also states that the DfE’s “expectation that all new schools will have sprinklers fitted”, unless a school is deemed as “low risk” and that as a result, installation “would not be good value for money”. However, despite this, of the 260 schools build since 2014 under the Schools Building Programme, less than a third of them actually have sprinklers implemented. To make matters worse, Ms Cotton claimed that the London Fire Brigade has recommended sprinklers in 184 schools – both new or refurbished – in 2016, yet their advice was only taken in four of those cases. As well as this, the National Fire Chiefs Council said that the percentage proportion of new schools built with sprinklers had gone down from 70% close to a decade ago to just a third last year, while across the whole of England and Wales, only 5% of schools have sprinklers in place.

​According to documents seen by the BBC, a number of fire stations in Scotland are set to be closed, meaning some firefighters are expected to lose their jobs. Papers which have been circulated to senior management within the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service state that as it stands, the current model won’t be able to last beyond the end of the financial year. The BBC were informed by the Fire Brigades Union Scotland that there are lots of fire engines which are essentially unusable due to the lack of crews on hand to take them out. Unsurprisingly, Alasdair Hay – Scotland’s fire chief – was less than impressed, and stated that the service needs to be “transformed” as the existing model is “still rooted in 1947.” In addition to this, Hay also said that the service needs a “planned and safe” change in order to adapt to the rough and tumble of the 21st Century, with the collective aim being to look at the “collective resource” across Scotland and try and figure out a way to secure the best balance of on-call retained crews and full-time firefighters. Hay also suggested that it could be possible for rural stations to have full-time stage available in order to carry out “vital preventative” work, while urban fire stations may feel inclined to adopt the “retrained” model of on-call fire crews at certain times. He then claimed that firefighters are now being tasked with a much wider role than their normal duties, especially when it comes to providing emergency medical care and tackling terrorism, but those who adapt to that by redesigning their roles and taking on board the new skillset required, they would be in line for a significantly better pay rise. Almost five years ago, Scotland;s eight regional fire services merged together into one single service, but since April 2013, the SRFS has lost over 700 firefighters after being under significant pressure to keep their costs low. Their budget is around £260m. As of yet, no fire stations have been identified for closure.

Greater Manchester, UK firefighters will now have body cameras as part of their usual equipment following a sharp rise in attacks, the fire service has stated. The month of October saw at least 10 attacks, including three on the 17th October, as reported by the Manchester Evening News, which has prompted the decision. Crews in Bolton were supplied the body cameras first. Lee Coleman from the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service stated that it was sad that the fire service had to take that course of action as a result of the incidents. 152 reports of attacks on firefighters in the service were filed between April 2015 and August 2017, with the attacks ranging from verbal abuse to assault. In the week commencing the 16th October, fire crews in the area responded to two deliberate fires in Wigan, and were greeted by youths who threw bricks and stones both at the firefighters and the fire engine they travelled in. Coleman also added that giving firefighters body cameras was “as much for the personal protection of the crews as recording evidence”. Adding further comment to the matter, Ian Read – the watch manager at Bolton Central – was livid after one of his colleagues was struck on the side of the head with a brick in the aftermath of some offenders setting fire to some rubbish under a bench. “Luckily he was wearing his helmet with his visor down,” Read said. “If it had hit him in the face it could have blinded him. I have worked in some of the toughest areas – Salford, Broughton and north Bolton – and incidents like this had begun to stop. It is horrible to see them coming back again.” The spike in attacks has caused the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime for Greater Manchester, Beverley Hughes, to speak up on the matter, who claimed that these attacks are unacceptable. “These attacks take up the extremely valuable time and resources of our emergency services and will not be tolerated,” Hughes said. The addition of body cameras is nothing new within the fire sector, as since 2016, firefighters in both Hampshire and the West Midlands have been equipped with cameras.

Jacksonville City Council have rejected a $1.2m proposal for land in order to build a new fire station, continuing the city’s two decade long battle to locate and finance a new station. ​Fire Chief Devin Hull had suggested that the city purchase 1.5 acres of land at 815 N. Fifth St. – a portion of land which was formerly occupied by HVAC firm Spring Air – while also proposing the purchase of a fire engine as well as construction of a station itself for an additional $1.8m. ​Hull had devised a plan to sell a section of the site, which could’ve fetched up to $650,000, which would have aided the finance plan for the project, while a lot sale of the current fire station was tipped to bring in up to $450,000. These sales would’ve gone a long way to financing the project, as a new building was set to cost $1.5m, according to Hull. The current station was built in the 1930s and has a host of issues with it at present – with a lack of space and the significant threat that the building would be vulnerable should an earthquake occur being the most prominent. In addition to Hull’s propositions to raise the finance, there were several other suggestions which were mooted. ​One was to include a $12 addition to the monthly $35 safety surcharge which is paid on utility billings in order to support the fire services, however, this was seen as a regressive measure. Some of the other financing options included a bond measure – however, no financial specifications were actually given – and a capital levy project of $19.1m for five years. As well as these, the city’s urban renewal agency was touted as a possible source of funs, however urban renewal money can’t actually be used for land purchases, so that idea didn’t last. Hull also brought up the fact that an Idaho fire station had their construction costs financed 100% in the form of a grant given by the Environmental Protection Agency on the grounds that the building met the top LEED standards possible. It’s expected that Jacksonville will return back to a previous idea, which would see Jackson County fire districts two and three merge together rather than be standalone districts, thus eliminating the need for a stand-alone city department. At the time, both districts turned the proposal down due to an insufficient tax base within the city to support annexation, however, the influx o new buildings and the general increase in values may change things.