Avon Fire & Rescue Service has cleverly dodged a £100,000 bill to dispose of firefighting foam that no longer complies with the law, by donating it to their counterparts in Moldova.
Photo © Avon Fire & Rescue Service
The organisation was told it faced the massive charge to effectively pour 15,000 litres of the material down the drain, even though it would still work in tackling blazes.
So with the help of charity Fire Aid, it was driven over to Moldova earlier this month as a gift to crews in the eastern European country, for the grand sum of just £5,000.
Avon Fire Authority (AFA) chairman, Bristol Councillor Paul Goggin (Labour, Hartcliffe & Withywood), and seven volunteers from the service drove 2,000 miles last year to deliver two fire engines to Ukraine, which had reached the end of their service life in the UK but could still be used.
They handed them over, along with lifesaving equipment, in Moldova, which was as far as the Avon firefighters could go, and made lasting contacts and friends.
Councillor Goggin, Bristol’s former lord mayor, continued with the Moldovans for the final leg of the journey to Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa where the vehicles are now in use.
He told a recent AFA meeting: “Due to a change in UK legislation regarding the ingredients allowed within our firefighting foam, and relevant expiry dates, we were required to, and expecting to, replace 15,000 litres of firefighting foam.
“It was still viable as firefighting foam, and we had been told that it would cost us approximately £100,000 just to get rid of it.
“Our head of fleet Matt Derrick and assistant chief fire officer Richard Welch reached out to Fire Aid, a charity which supports other countries’ fire services during times of difficulties.
“They have a brilliant programme called Brave Minds which offers free counselling to any Ukrainian firefighters and they were instrumental in helping us get the fire engines across to Odesa recently.
“We asked if Ukraine could benefit from us and unfortunately, there was a diktat from their central government that they couldn’t accept this kind of foam.
“So we asked the Moldovan fire service.
“They were also a great help during our donation – we did the handover with the Moldovan fire service and we stayed with them on one of the evenings.
“We asked them if they would like it and they said ‘Ooh, yes please’.
“So Fire Aid made the logistical arrangements, the foam was collected on 4th February.
“This donation and transport cost us around £5,000, which using pretty simple maths, equated in a saving of around £95,000 for our budget against the disposal in the UK, and more importantly it has given viable firefighting foam to the Moldovan fire service,” Councillor Goggin told the meeting on Friday, 13th February.
Adam Postans, Local Democracy Reporter
