I was interviewed on STV news last night about the fire in Monifieth in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The full time crew on night shift at Balmossie got to the fire in 4 minutes. The retained crew at Balmossie, who are part time fire fighters on call, could not be mustered so a second crew was summoned to the fire from the Kingsway station. The Kingsway crew arrived a number of minutes later.
Residents will remember that when Tayside Fire and Rescue proposed to downgrade Balmossie their proposals would have merely left a retained part-time on call crew to cover the night shift. This would not be much use if they couldn't be mustered.
Bearing in mind how life, limb and property are best protected by getting to a fire quickly, I think this incident demonstrates the continuing need for full-time fire crews at Balmossie.
