Fire Fighters, Neighbourhoods and Social Identity: the relationship between the fire service and residents in Bristol
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- Chapter One: Introduction
Preface: All in a day’s workThree fire fighters accompany me to the front door of a house on a peripheral housing estate, where they are greeted by a woman, in her pyjamas. The Crew Manager (CM) apologises, but it transpires she was expecting them. It is around midday. She is at home with her four year old (also in his pyjamas) and her partner, who does not live there, but who is dressed. He is smoking and watching television. She shows us into the sitting room to the right, activating a wall mounted aerosol air spray as she goes past it. If it is to detract from the smoking partner, it does not work. This house has clearly not been refurbished, perhaps for twenty years. The floors are bare lino and concrete – standard practice in council houses. The little boy is shy, and runs to his mum. She tries to distract him with toys, but he curls up on her knee with a dummy. I wonder if I should try to distract him with the toys on the floor, but am reluctant to seem gender stereotypical. They do not have smoke alarms, and so two fire fighters go upstairs to fit one on the landing. The CM and I stay downstairs in the sitting room to go through the leaflet with the householder. By way of small talk, he asks how she heard about the service, and when she had booked her home fire safety visit (HFSV). She doesn’t remember, and is not all that keen to chat about it. She doesn’t seem that interested in what the CM is saying, and gives one word answers. Her partner continues to watch television, and to smoke, putting his cigarette out in a brimming ashtray balanced on an arm of the sofa. In my attenuated state, caused by proximity to a lot of fire safety information, I can’t help but feel that this is very dangerous. He has not acknowledged the crew’s presence. It feels quite awkward to be asking ‘household’ questions of the resident with her boyfriend in the room. He is not going to be drawn into the conversation, and it seems wrong to talk about him, and their routine without his involvement. It is not an environment which is conducive to giving fire safety messages, but the CM soldiers on. Yes they smoke in bed, yes they have a chip pan, yes they use candles. He outlines all the key messages from the leaflet, too loudly for the boyfriend, who turns up the television. It is clearly interfering with his viewing pleasure. The smoke alarms are fitted, and tested, and the CM wraps up the conversation. There are no questions. The little boy is entirely uninterested, and his mum does not say ‘come and look at the fire engine’ or anything which might pique his interest. The boyfriend doesn’t look away from the television as we leave. No one is actually aggressive towards the crew: no missiles are thrown, there are no abusive words. Nevertheless, this disheartening experience is all in a days work for the crew. Amended excerpt from field notes Chapter One: IntroductionThis research projectIn 2005, the Fire Brigades’ Union published research on attacks on fire fighters (Labour Research Department 2005). This was followed by guidance from central government to fire services on how to deal with assaults on their staff (Communities and Local Government 2006). Although assaults on fire crews had been endemic in some areas for a number of years, these two reports were indicative of a perceived rise in assaults on crews across the country, including in the South West. Further research suggested that residents of Neighbourhood Renewal Areas were twice as likely to die or be injured in fires than residents of more affluent areas (Arson Control Forum 2004), whilst fire fighters reported that hostility was developing in exactly these areas. However, as the preface suggests, not every interaction with the public was typified by violence or assault, nor by engagement and communication. As such, this research project was envisaged as a way to come to an understanding of what the fire service perceived as hostility towards them and their crews, combined with increasing resistance to fire safety messages, particularly, as I shall discuss below, in those areas most susceptible to fire. This thesis, entitled ‘Fire fighters, neighbourhoods and social identity: the relationship between the fire service and residents in Bristol’ seeks to address these issues, by aiming to come to a better understanding of the relationship between residents and fire service. It will do this through three specific research questions:
This research project was initiated by Avon Fire and Rescue Service (AFRS) and the University of the West of England (UWE) and made possible by funding from AFRS and Great Western Research (GWR). GWR is a part of the regional development agency for the South West and aims to promote international quality research within the region through collaborations between industry and academic institutions. In this instance, my industry partner is, of course, the fire service, with support from both UWE and Bristol University. In the true spirit of collaboration and multidisciplinarity, the project has been supported at UWE between the Faculty of Environment and Technology (FET) and the Department of Psychology. The project comes under the auspices of GWR’s psychology stream, but, as I shall discuss in the literature review, includes debates from contemporary social psychology, human geography and criminology. It also invariably draws on urban studies literatures, which themselves draw on these fields. A further section of literatures pertain particularly to fire and rescue services, both in this country and abroad. Due to my lack of language skills, and in some small part to the cultural similarities afforded by remaining in the Anglophone world, the majority of literatures are concerned with the UK, Australia and North America. Download 0.87 Mb. Share with your friends:
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