If the public still tend to have a stereotypical view of the fire service then meeting fire chief, Vij Randeniya, will rapidly change their minds, says Michael Burton
Most of us, with, thankfully, little experience of the fire service, tend to persist with a stereotypical view that the firefighters’ main role is being on standby for when the alarm goes off and they hare off in their engines, just like Fireman Sam.
However, a visit to meet the new chief fire officer at the largest fire service in England and Wales – the West Midlands – swiftly dispels some of these crusty prejudices.
For a start, Vij Randeniya, the chief fire officer is, himself, about as unlikely a stereotype as you could find. Not only is he the first ethnic minority fire chief in England and has studied at the National School of Government, he is also a history graduate whose specialism is Hitler’s Waffen SS.
Part of the research involved poring over the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, at London’s Imperial War Museum. Vij is also an admirer of the late US president, John F Kennedy, and has all 26 volumes of the Warren Commission report into his 1963 assassination.
In his office in fire HQ in Birmingham, Vij explains that the modern fire service has long-moved on from popular imagination.
He says: ‘Few people have experience of the fire service. They think we just wait around to be called. And no, there are no beds here either.’
Much of the service’s work is prevention, with some 50,000 calls a year to private homes. ‘Smoke detectors don’t stop fires – the key part is education,’ he continues.
But there is also serious analysis behind the prevention drive. Socio-economic classes C and D tend to have the highest fire incidents, and so the focus is on these areas.
‘We identity types of people, types of areas,’ says Vij. ‘Half-a-million sets of data are overlaid with indexes of deprivation. People in poorer areas are less aware, have less time, have cheap electrical goods, use more chip pans, and smoke more. And migrant families often cook in pans with a lot of fat.’
Firefighters’ own visits to such areas are often, of course, duplicated by other parts of the public sector. ‘We’ve identified the same profile for health inequalities, educational achievement, higher crime levels and so on. We need to join up better.
‘An area might have different visits every day of the week – social services on Monday, housing on Tuesday, police on Wednesday, fire service on Thursday. People are endlessly being targeted.’
He argues, however, that the fire service is a good brand, seen as neutral by householders in such areas and, therefore, more receptive to other messages it might bring them.
‘We’re a trusted brand in the fire service – people are always grateful. And because we do home safety checks, it means we can get across the doorstep and can refer back to other agencies. But we have to be impartial.’
The fire service role also takes it into dealing with anti-social behaviour, such as graffiti.
‘We see ourselves with a wide role,’ says Vij. ‘We get involved in anti-graffiti activities, because graffiti often leads to wider problems, such as arson. Once people lose respect for an area, things deteriorate. If there is a burned-out car, it stays there.’
As part of this educational role, last January, the fire service opened a £2.3m life-size urban village next to its HQ, which mimics streetscene and even includes part of a train and a bus. School parties are shown around the interactive displays.
The fire service has also seen internal changes, with increased productivity and changes to shifts to reduce rest periods. New entrants also have to work 40 years before being able to leave on full pension. Despite this, there is still a waiting list for job applicants.
Vij, the son of a principal officer in IT at Lewisham LBC, studied modern history, graduating in 1981, and later joined the fire service ‘by chance’. For two years, he never even revealed he was a graduate. He worked in Brixton, was station officer in east London and, in Nottingham, joined the corporate team for the first time.
Later, in 2004, he became deputy CFO at the West Midlands, and studied management at the National School of Government.
Despite his education, Vij maintains it is still important that chief fire officers come from a uniformed background, in contrast to some suggestions that the post can be filled by managers, rather than from the ranks.
He argues: ‘We have specialists here in IT and HR, but the problem is that a non-uniformed chief can’t command a major incident.
‘The press want to see a uniform not a suit. You can, of course, have a non-uniformed chief with a uniformed deputy, but I don’t accept that a chief fire officer can do the job with such a major competence missing.’
In that respect, as he admits, he believes in ‘tradition, but with a cutting edge’.
A major incident requiring his presence would be a fire involving 25 engines, where ‘we need a wide-angle lens, because the press and politicians are there’. The impact of such a fire is also cross-sector covering police, council and health services. He commanded such an incident two years ago, as deputy at a fire in Walsall.
As a result, he is on bleeper call 24 hours a day outside his working hours of 8am to 7pm, not only in case of a major incident but also should a fire involve fatalities. The only time he steps away from his work is on holiday. Time presumably to catch up on some history reading.
However, a visit to meet the new chief fire officer at the largest fire service in England and Wales – the West Midlands – swiftly dispels some of these crusty prejudices.
For a start, Vij Randeniya, the chief fire officer is, himself, about as unlikely a stereotype as you could find. Not only is he the first ethnic minority fire chief in England and has studied at the National School of Government, he is also a history graduate whose specialism is Hitler’s Waffen SS.
Part of the research involved poring over the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, at London’s Imperial War Museum. Vij is also an admirer of the late US president, John F Kennedy, and has all 26 volumes of the Warren Commission report into his 1963 assassination.
In his office in fire HQ in Birmingham, Vij explains that the modern fire service has long-moved on from popular imagination.
He says: ‘Few people have experience of the fire service. They think we just wait around to be called. And no, there are no beds here either.’
Much of the service’s work is prevention, with some 50,000 calls a year to private homes. ‘Smoke detectors don’t stop fires – the key part is education,’ he continues.
But there is also serious analysis behind the prevention drive. Socio-economic classes C and D tend to have the highest fire incidents, and so the focus is on these areas.
‘We identity types of people, types of areas,’ says Vij. ‘Half-a-million sets of data are overlaid with indexes of deprivation. People in poorer areas are less aware, have less time, have cheap electrical goods, use more chip pans, and smoke more. And migrant families often cook in pans with a lot of fat.’
Firefighters’ own visits to such areas are often, of course, duplicated by other parts of the public sector. ‘We’ve identified the same profile for health inequalities, educational achievement, higher crime levels and so on. We need to join up better.
‘An area might have different visits every day of the week – social services on Monday, housing on Tuesday, police on Wednesday, fire service on Thursday. People are endlessly being targeted.’
He argues, however, that the fire service is a good brand, seen as neutral by householders in such areas and, therefore, more receptive to other messages it might bring them.
‘We’re a trusted brand in the fire service – people are always grateful. And because we do home safety checks, it means we can get across the doorstep and can refer back to other agencies. But we have to be impartial.’
The fire service role also takes it into dealing with anti-social behaviour, such as graffiti.
‘We see ourselves with a wide role,’ says Vij. ‘We get involved in anti-graffiti activities, because graffiti often leads to wider problems, such as arson. Once people lose respect for an area, things deteriorate. If there is a burned-out car, it stays there.’
As part of this educational role, last January, the fire service opened a £2.3m life-size urban village next to its HQ, which mimics streetscene and even includes part of a train and a bus. School parties are shown around the interactive displays.
The fire service has also seen internal changes, with increased productivity and changes to shifts to reduce rest periods. New entrants also have to work 40 years before being able to leave on full pension. Despite this, there is still a waiting list for job applicants.
Vij, the son of a principal officer in IT at Lewisham LBC, studied modern history, graduating in 1981, and later joined the fire service ‘by chance’. For two years, he never even revealed he was a graduate. He worked in Brixton, was station officer in east London and, in Nottingham, joined the corporate team for the first time.
Later, in 2004, he became deputy CFO at the West Midlands, and studied management at the National School of Government.
Despite his education, Vij maintains it is still important that chief fire officers come from a uniformed background, in contrast to some suggestions that the post can be filled by managers, rather than from the ranks.
He argues: ‘We have specialists here in IT and HR, but the problem is that a non-uniformed chief can’t command a major incident.
‘The press want to see a uniform not a suit. You can, of course, have a non-uniformed chief with a uniformed deputy, but I don’t accept that a chief fire officer can do the job with such a major competence missing.’
In that respect, as he admits, he believes in ‘tradition, but with a cutting edge’.
A major incident requiring his presence would be a fire involving 25 engines, where ‘we need a wide-angle lens, because the press and politicians are there’. The impact of such a fire is also cross-sector covering police, council and health services. He commanded such an incident two years ago, as deputy at a fire in Walsall.
As a result, he is on bleeper call 24 hours a day outside his working hours of 8am to 7pm, not only in case of a major incident but also should a fire involve fatalities. The only time he steps away from his work is on holiday. Time presumably to catch up on some history reading.
