I’ve seen a number of times now where people have expressed their concerns in regards to the future of health and safety. I’m a relative newcomer to the profession but I still shake my head when I see this. I started out by joining the RAF as a fire fighter in 81 and remember back to my first full time posting at a busy airfield. The crew commander decided to have an Breathing Apparatus (BA) exercise, back then the BA had steel cylinders (heavy) and were pressurised to 207 Atmospheres (Ats later it was in bars). As we were crash fire fighters we wore a woollen suit with an awful full head covering white helmet with a gauze Perspex visor to reflect radiated heat (BA could not be worn with these helmets). We also wore thick asbestos gauntlets. For domestic fires and with the BA we used a cork fire helmet, we had no domestic fire gloves so didn’t wear any for BA work. For this exercise the crew commander decided to use the old bomb shelter on the airfield. In this he placed two burning car tyres to fill this confined space with thick toxic black smoke. I and another fire fighter were sent into this environment to rescue a casualty, so that we didn’t get the hose dirty we were sent in with no fire fighting media. As an added incentive the crew commander though it would be a good idea to simulate an explosion inside by throwing in a ‘Thunder Flash’ (a pyrotechnic like a very large fire cracker), needless to say the effects in a small confined area are a deafening experience and in pitch blackness. This sort of thing was common practice and thankfully today this no longer happens. As a young man I was not even aware of the HSAW Act or what it represented. Now it is common knowledge, part of the induction of new employees, and our safety culture has grown to stop such stupid and irresponsible actions as describe above. In my opinion the foundations of health and safety are strong and the building on those foundations is well designed (maybe not perfect but then what is) and strong enough to weather the occasional storm. So yes the job market is not good at the moment but I sincerely believe that the knowledge, skills and experience of the health and safety professional will always be needed. It just may take a little time for the employers to realise this, but they will. Too much has changed for them not too in my opinion.

On that note though, a fire fighters life expectancy wasn’t particularly good then either, is that any wonder at what they were exposed to. At least now it is common practice to wear a BA to most incidents and every part of the body is now covered. Just shows how health and safety has improved the working practices.

Phil you are exactly right. I can see smoke miles away and usually guess correctly what is burning. I can smell smoke and tell you exactly what is on fire. My sense of smell is so good it really annoys my wife - I tell her what she just ate ha ha. Firefighters that retired when I was a young fireman usually didn't live more than a few years on pension. Nowadays there are hundreds of ex members still thriving, that is probably partly due to the H&S changes in the workplace, also due to the better lifestyle we live in general, smokeless fuel, less harmful fumes around, central heating in our homes, more non smokers etc. etc. etc. The current systems for pro active anti fire measures are also doing good, more smoke alarms means less fires to deal with. Firefighters are now attending fires and if there is no obvious threat to life they carry out a risk assessment. While the ra is done the fire develops to such an extent that it is then too dangerous to enter the premises so they let it burn and protect surrounding property. More fire damage but longer life span for the firefighters. By the way my first Station Officer in 1968 is still living, he's in his 90's now. Good for him.

Thats sounds just the training we got in 77/78 when I was in the RN and due to strikes in Fire Service we were given a 1 day crash fire fighting course at HMS Pheonix and then let loose in a Green Goddess. Thankfully I was never called out to a real fire