Swinney urged to investigate whether cuts affected Glasgow fire response

The First Minister was told the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) had faced "years of cuts" and the blaze on Union Street must act as a "wake up call".

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said both of Glasgow’s high-reach appliances were unavailable during the inferno.

However, the SFRS said it strongly rejected any suggestion it did not have the necessary resources in place to tackle the fire, which engulfed a B-listed Victorian building on Sunday.

The council has since confirmed the historic structure will have to be demolished.

READ MORE: Fire-ravaged Union Corner building in Glasgow to be demolished

Speaking during First Minister's Questions in Holyrood, Mr Sarwar said firefighters are "too often fighting fires with reduced capacity". He said the SNP had cut the number of specially-designed high-reach appliances (HRAs) from 26 to just 16 for the whole of Scotland in 2023.

"In Glasgow, we saw six appliances cut to two, and now it is believed that both of Glasgow's HRAs weren't available on Sunday due to annual inspection," he said. "Why was that ever allowed to happen?”

He said one in six firefighter jobs have been lost since 2013.

Mr Sarwar added: "We don't know right now what difference the reduction in fire service capacity would have made on Sunday, but will John Swinney commit to an immediate investigation into any potential impact this may have had on the response, so that lessons can be urgently learned?"

Mr Swinney said the response of the SFRS on Sunday was "exemplary", adding: "The resources that were required were there to ensure that the fire could be extinguished, and crucially, that the equipment, the high-rise equipment was available provided the strategic intervention that stopped the fire from spreading into Glasgow Central Station or the Central Hotel."

The First Minister said an additional £23.8 million had been allocated for the fire service in the recent Budget, bringing its total budget to £435.96 million. He said the SFRS is currently undertaking a "service delivery review" which will assess the proper deployment of resources, among other issues.

Mr Sarwar said: "John Swinney and I agree on the exemplary nature of decision-making for those individual firefighters, but where I think he needs to commit to an urgent investigation is the impact on the capacity that was available to those firefighters.

"I don't think he can logically say that reducing Glasgow's appliances from six to two, and those two appliances both being out of stream at the same time due to inspection, couldn't have had a material difference.”

He said government officials had recently met with the Fire Brigades Union to inform it of more job cuts.

"We know there are now fewer firefighters, less fire fighting equipment, longer response times and station closures," Mr Sarwar said. "Our fire and rescue service has already faced years of cuts. So surely the tragedy on Sunday must be a wake up call and a reason to pause?"

Mr Swinney said the ongoing SFRS review must have public safety and effectiveness "uppermost in its consideration".

He said the number of dwelling fires had reduced by more than 20 per cent since 2013, while the SFRS has increasingly been called out to floods and wildfires, indicating the nature of the demands it faces must be "constantly reviewed".

Mr Swinney added: "In relation to the incident on Sunday in Glasgow, I am confident that there were effective resources in place to do all that needed to be done."

Assistant Chief Officer David Farries, the SFRS’s director of operational delivery, said: “We strongly refute any suggestion that we did not have the necessary resource in place to respond to what was a large and complex building fire on Union Street in Glasgow.

“After being alerted on the afternoon of Sunday 8 March, we committed significant resources to tackle this fire, ultimately bringing the incident to a safe conclusion while protecting our firefighters and the wider community from harm.

“This included high-reach appliances to be used to direct water from height as part of our wider plan, a tactic that can only be deployed when internal firefighting is no longer viable.

“The first high reach appliance was mobilised from Coatbridge and arrived on scene within 19 minutes but ultimately was not required for external firefighting operations until almost two hours later. This was supplemented by vehicles from Johnstone and Kilmarnock at the request of the incident commander.

“To be clear, high-reach appliances are national resources that are placed strategically across Scotland. It is both inaccurate and alarmist to suggest that the provision of our fleet of high-reach appliances had any negative impact on our operational response to this incident.

“I am immensely proud of the efforts of our crews who worked tirelessly in challenging conditions in responding to this fire. This includes efforts to prevent and limit further damage to nearby buildings, including Glasgow Central train station and hotel.

“Incidents of this scale require staff and appliances to be drawn from across wider areas, a benefit of having a national service. SFRS maintains the ability to mobilise a range of resources to emergencies when required across Scotland, while always maintaining strategic cover.”