UK to use firefighters to deliver food, collect bodies in coronavirus crisis

[snoop1130]

UK to use firefighters to deliver food, collect bodies in coronavirus crisis

By Michael Holden

 

An NHS supply chain lorry is seen outside the Excel Centre, London as it is being prepared to become the NHS Nightingale hospital as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in East London, Britain, March 27, 2020. REUTERS/Simon Dawson

 

LONDON (Reuters) - The United Kingdom will use firefighters to help deliver food, retrieve dead bodies and drive ambulances as it braces for the looming peak of the coronavirus outbreak that has already claimed the lives of more than 22,000 people across the world.

 

Britain initially took a strikingly modest approach to the worst health crisis since the 1918 influenza epidemic but then changed tack to impose stringent controls after projections showed a quarter of a million British people could die.

 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ordered a virtual lockdown of the world’s fifth largest economy to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus banning Britons from leaving their homes for all non-essential reasons.

 

So far, 578 people in the United Kingdom have died after testing positive for coronavirus and the number of confirmed cases has risen to 11,658. The UK toll is the seventh worst in the world, after Italy, Spain, China, Iran, France and the United States, according to a Reuters tally.

 

Under a deal struck between the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), Fire chiefs and Fire and Rescue Employers, firefighters will continue to respond to their usual emergencies but will now also carry out new tasks.

 

“We face a public health crisis unparalleled in our lifetimes. The coronavirus outbreak is now a humanitarian emergency and firefighters rightly want help their communities,” said Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary.

 

“Many fear the loss of life in this outbreak could be overwhelming and firefighters, who often handle terrible situations and incidents, are ready to step in to assist with body retrieval.”

 

As well as collecting those who die should there be mass casualties, firefighters can drive ambulances, and take food and medicine to the vulnerable under the agreement.

 

To cope with the outbreak, Britain has already asked tens of thousands of retired doctors and healthcare workers to return to work, while hundreds of thousands of people have volunteered to assist the state-run National Health Service.

 

On Friday, the capital’s ambulance service appealed to former paramedics and control room staff for help, and London’s police force asked officers who have retired in the last five years to come back.

 

“It is important that we take all reasonable steps to bolster our numbers,” London Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said.

 

BRITAIN CLAPS

 

Britons across the country took to their balconies and front doors on Thursday evening to applaud health workers and bang pots and pans to show support for those working for the nation’s much-loved NHS.

 

There has been criticism that the government has not acted quickly enough to provide protective equipment to frontline healthcare staff and it is also scrambling to source thousands of ventilators to treat those with severe breathing problems caused by the virus.

 

The government has admitted that it missed an opportunity to join a European Union procurement scheme to source the equipment because of an email mix up.

 

“There was an issue in terms of communications so the tendering process on those schemes had already started,” Business Secretary Alok Sharma told BBC radio on Friday.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-03-27

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[Phuketshrew]

7 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

The United Kingdom will use firefighters to help deliver food, retrieve dead bodies

It's just been confirmed on BBC that Boris has tested positive.

[PETERTHEEATER]

13 hours ago, Phuketshrew said:

It's just been confirmed on BBC that Boris has tested positive.

Oh my God! He's HIV?

[natway09]

What a terribly badly written headline. I hope they use different teams 

[RJRS1301]

10 minutes ago, natway09 said:

What a terribly badly written headline. I hope they use different teams 

Nah drop the food off to one home, then go next door collect grandad, separate compartments of the trucks.

Save fuel, as there will be a shortage 

[RJRS1301]

12 minutes ago, natway09 said:

 

 

Edited March 28, 2020 by RJRS1301

[wotsdermatter]

Is this a throwback to the Black Death in all of Europe during the middle ages when people with pushcarts went around calling out for dead bodies to be left outside so the could be picked-up and taken away?  Just curious.

'nuf sed.

 

[Grumpy John]

11 minutes ago, wotsdermatter said:

Is this a throwback to the Black Death in all of Europe during the middle ages when people with pushcarts went around calling out for dead bodies to be left outside so the could be picked-up and taken away?  Just curious.

'nuf sed.

 

I think they will leave the engine to do the work,  a 2 ton ambulance would need half a dozen lads to push it around all day!

[Lokie]

This is total BS...

 

Im in UK right now... Govt asked for 250,000 volunteers to help support NHS, social care , distribution etc (the applicants will be matched to best activites required on assessment, up to last night (Friday) in excess of 800,000 people had put their names down...

 

The Britsih Armed Forces are now assisting with distribution of vital supplies to NHS sites and other sites as required (military planners were already involved at the outset, as part of civil disaster prevention along with relevant Govt depts)

 

Only thing reported Re Fire Fighters is they were out on the moors yesterday putting out fires caused by idiots out using disposable BBQs and starting fires on moorlands (Winter Hill as example near Bolton, Greater Manchester) which were decimated in 2018 by Fires back then... samed idiots spreading the Virus as they can not even sit on their backsides at home if not neccassary to go out.

 

No Fire fighters will be delivering food as part of active duties, they will however do as they always do in charitable ways in own time however. 

The RLC are already involved as above if any Ambo's need to be driven, ambo shuttles/buses may be drawn from public voluteers above when deployed in weeks to come as required. I think they may be used before Fire Fighters who are pared to the bone same as Police numbers these days... fake news!!!