THE number of firefighters and control staff in Scotland being lost to coronavirus isolation has soared by 27% in just over three weeks - leading to new calls for urgent testing.
It comes while Scotland has been operating with 917 fewer firefighters and control staff since 2010 - a 12% cut.
The Fire Brigades Union has warned that one in twenty have now been lost to the potentially deadly virus and that without urgent action it will "inevitably" impact on their ability to provide fire cover and response to emergencies.
The FBU says the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has lost 362 staff to coronavirus isolation - the highest number of any region of the UK.
READ MORE: Coronavirus - Pharmacists hit by tsunami of activity
That's 77 more than on March 20 when there were 285 firefighters in self isolation.
The Scottish government has committed to initial limited testing of firefighters and control staff which has already begun at Glasgow airport.
Some firefighters are now driving ambulances and assisting ambulance staff; delivering food and medicines to vulnerable people; and working with the police to move dead bodies, after the FBU reached a landmark agreement with fire chiefs and fire and rescue employers.
In mid-March, the FBU had written to governments at Westminster and Holyrood warning that without testing some firefighters could be self-isolating unnecessarily, when they could be on hand to protect the public.
Across the UK the FBU say nearly 3,000 fire and rescue staff are in self-isolation and unable to work, representing 5.1% of the UK’s overall fire and rescue workforce. Just under 2,600 of them are operational firefighters and control staff, making up 5.3% of the total.
Emergency fire control rooms, which have fewer staff, have been worst hit in some areas, with some control rooms losing 15.9% of their staff.
Emergency fire control staff handle 999 calls and provide vital fire survival guidance for areas of up to 5 million people from a single room.
The FBU said that should one member of staff contract the virus, the emergency call infrastructure for an entire region "could be at risk".
Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: “The government is playing with fire by not testing firefighters and control room staff for coronavirus. Currently, crews are maintaining services, but this will become increasingly difficult as the virus spreads.
“There are already thousands of firefighters and control staff in self-isolation, only a fraction of which will have the disease. If we aren’t able to find out exactly who is infected, and more staff isolate unnecessarily, services will be put on a dangerous knife-edge.
“Of course testing of NHS staff has to be a priority, but firefighters and other emergency service personnel are also at serious risk. The very safety of the public relies on them being able to attend work. There needs to be a clear and deliverable testing strategy for all workers required to continue at work.
“The government failed to secure test kits in sufficient numbers early in the pandemic and now frontline services are paying the price. Devolved governments have begun to take steps in the right direction, but in Westminster time is standing still – ministers need to get to grips with this crisis and ensure that all emergency service personnel are tested as soon as possible."
The Scottish Government says that the absenses is not yet having a significant impact on the availability of front-line fire appliances and their crews.
A spokesman said:“Our approach to testing is directed towards ensuring we save as many lives as possible and protect the vulnerable. That is why we will continue to prioritise testing in hospitals, and why we need to prioritise available capacity to ensure that critical staff can return to work as soon as possible.
“We are working very closely with Health Protection Scotland and National Services Scotland to rapidly increase our NHS laboratory capacity in Scotland. This has already increased to over 2,000 test capacity daily and will continue to increase to around 3,500 at the end of April.
“We welcome the UK Government’s expanded testing programme and key workers, including fire fighters, have already been tested at the Glasgow site. This programme will help to significantly increase testing capacity for key workers in Scotland in the coming period."
Shops across Scotland are closing. Newspaper sales are falling. But we’ve chosen to keep our coverage of the coronavirus crisis free because it’s so important for the people of Scotland to stay informed during this difficult time.
However, producing The Herald's unrivalled analysis, insight and opinion on a daily basis still costs money, and we need your support to sustain our trusted, quality journalism.
To help us get through this, we’re asking readers to take a digital subscription to The Herald. You can sign up now for just £2 for two months.
If you choose to sign up, we’ll offer a faster loading, advert-light experience – and deliver a digital version of the print product to your device every day.
Click here to help The Herald.
Thank you, and stay safe.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here