Fire chiefs to splash out £50k on new T-shirts

Fire chiefs are to splash out £50,000 of taxpayers’ cash on new T-shirts for firefighters – to make crews ‘more comfortable’ in hot weather.

The expenditure by Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service – at a cost of £100-per-person – follows recommendations arising from a ‘hot weather debrief’ after last year’s scorching summer.

Incidents included a blaze which raged for more than a week at the Roaches, near Leek, 515 call-outs in just one day last July and seven grass fires in just 24 hours last June.

Now black polo shirts with the service’s logo are currently being trialled as a possible replacement to the red under-shirt and blue-collared over-shirt combination firefighters currently wear.

The fire service has also budgeted £17,000 for other wildfire-fighting measures. This includes two ‘dams’ – large portable pools used for pumping water in remote locations – and three light portable pumps for use in remote locations.

The spending was approved at this month’s budget meeting alongside a 2.99 per cent council tax increase.

David Greensmith, the fire service’s director of finance, assets and resources, said: “Last summer’s wildfires in the Staffordshire Moorlands placed huge demands on the service. Firefighters were working in full kit in extremely hot conditions.

“Our hot weather debrief identified areas where we needed to purchase new equipment to add to our capability, look at ways of making firefighters more comfortable while they do their job and replace items which had come to the end of their useful life. This is all part of the service’s usual planning process.”