Apparently there was a bad house fire down Grosvenor Ave last night.

Nothing on the Gazette website yet Jon. Fingers crossed.

couple of doors down from me,noise started at about 02-30 and one engine was still there at 08-00.
no idea if anyone was in or not,no doubt i will find out tonight.

The LFB website are saying:

Firefighters were called to a fire in a first floor maisonette on Grosvenor Avenue, Hayes in the early hours of this morning.

Fifty per cent of the first floor bedroom was damaged by fire.

A woman was rescued from the flat and treated for smoke inhalation by London Ambulance Service crews at the scene.

Two fire engines from Hillingdon and Northolt fire stations went to the scene with fourteen firefighters and officers.

The Brigade was called at 0212 and the fire was brought under control by 0314.

The cause of the fire is being investigated by the Brigade.

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One lucky lady!

BTW: Hillingdon fire station (and Northolt) should have 2 fire engines each, but they are down to 1 each as the LFB management have removed 27 to use when any further strikes may be called.

This move is inevitably delaying fire engines getting to calls as the nearest pumps do not always attend and 2 fire stations were emptied to attend this fire instead of just Hillingdon. But thankfully there seems to be a happy ending to this call and I wish the casualty well!

This cutting back of Fire services is going to be fatal sooner or later though, it's very short sighted of them.

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Lets be careful out there !

There is a debate going on the army rumour service that the fire service should over the next 20 years or so be transitioned to become another branch of the MOD. Bit like the Army or Navy.

Recruitment takes place alongside the armed services where pers can sign up for traditional terms 3,6,9 years + up to 22 years with all operational staff having left the service by age 50 (as happens pretty much in the services today). Promotion is made on merit taking into account the length of contract the individual is on.

Resettlement advice and training courses would be made available for leavers pretty much in the same way as happens in the services today.

Persons are then free to pursue other career choices up to the normal retirement age at 65+. There would of course still be the pension scheme but it would be run along the same lines as the current service schemes.

Win win all round. Firepersons are not thrown onto the unemployed scrapheap at age 50 and the pensions scheme becomes affordable to everyone and fairer for the taxpayer.

Of course all current firepersons should have their terms and (pension) conditions honoured which would allow for the long transitional period. Towards the end of the 20 year transitional the brightest and best in at the ground floor today would form the mainstay of the training teams either at Moreton in the Marsh or other regional centres.

It's very hard to get a job as a fireman. A friend of mine was interested some years ago and they were only recruiting at special drives at various minority events where they would set up stands.

Let's not forget that not everything you read on the web is true and the Mod taking over is about as likely as me getting a gold medal in the forthcoming winter Olympics!

There is no way the Govt would shift the fire service from one Govt dept to another. It's far more likely that the entire UK fire & rescue service will be privatised in the next 20 years

In the last 15 years, the firefighters job has been been mapped into what are called 'rolemaps', They define various standards, the hours of work and the nature of the work undertaken by each role (was rank). Training and promotion is now carried out under a defined process, as is recruitment

Everything is now packaged in little compartments which makes it easy for a private company to bid to run a fire brigade. Its already started as our local fire service (LFB) does not own any fire engines, hose, breathing apparatus, or uniforms. All of this and the FF's training is now delivered by a private company -In the case of training Babcocks, The contingency fire service (during strikes) is also a PLC

Its the next logical step is to PFI fire safety inspectors and then 'operations' under PFI contracts. The fire service would perhaps provide an inspectorate (which already exists) which would audit that the PFI companies are working to the contract. This would involve audits at stations and on the fire ground at incidents - again, this is already being done

Under this more likely transition to PFI fire services, existing staff would not have their T&Cs (& pensions) protected. In fact their new contracts may involve a pay cut and longer hours. If you don't believe me, that is exactly what happened to the LFB vehicle technicians at South Ruislip (r/o Wickes) when that was privatised some years ago.

Lastly, there is no escape route to the fire service college for uniformed staff as........yes, you have guessed it...... that has just been bought by private company Capita. (who are already developing some of the 2km2 site for housing!)