With regards to your article about firefighters carrying knives while on duty being a health and safety issue (The Argus, October 24), maybe the record should be put straight.

In your article, you mentioned that firefighters were not to carry them in case we injured ourselves.

This is completely different from the reason we were given at work in a memo.

The real reason is a visit in Lewes, during which the crew from the local fire station attended the court to carry out an inspection of the building.

A member of the court security noticed a number of the crew had multi-tooled knives, similar to a Leatherman Wave, on their belts when going through the scanner.

Leatherman Wave knives also have a number of small screwdrivers, scissors, a file, a wood saw blade and pliers attached.

Because of the nature of the building, all sharp items, including knives, had to be removed.

These were kept by the security staff and handed back to the station manager at the fire station.

A memo was sent to each of the stations stating that due to an incident, knives are not to be carried by personnel as of November 1.

There were three reasons given.

  • It is against the law to carry a knife with a blade longer than three and a half inches.
  • The public’s perception of firefighters carrying knives.
  • The knives were not issued by the fire service.

I have been a firefighter for 18 years and have always carried a Leatherman Wave – as have most of my colleagues – for the job we do. There are a number of reasons why we carry them.

Most importantly, only a few months ago we were given guidance on how to remove fire tunics and leggings from colleagues if their uniform caught light. To do this we have to use a knife.

If, when fighting a fire, you get caught up in material, netting, curtains or electrical wire, we have to have a means of cutting ourselves free.

At road traffic collisions, seatbelts need to be cut quickly to remove casualties.

The fire service states that there are sufficient tools carried on the fire engine for every eventuality. This maybe so – if they are not broken or missing.

But if a firefighter is inside a burning building and something happens that requires a knife, I would then have to exit the incident, go to the fire engine and then return to the job. I might be ten floors up in a block of flats, but I would be expected to go back to the fire engine.

At shift changes, we do a check of all the equipment carried on the engine.

If an item of equipment is missing or damaged, we are not allowed to purchase another one from a shop using petty cash.

Instead, we have to indent for another item, which can take a number of days. Therefore, we have to go without until the item is delivered.

As for it being against the law to carry a knife, it is not against the law to carry one for the purpose it is intended.

A chef can carry his or her knives from home to their place of work and it is not illegal.

I made a phone call to Sussex Police to verify the statement from our officers at headquarters.

I was told the law does not forbid firefighters to carry knives as part of their duty.

It was stated that the new rule was fire service policy and nothing to do with the law.

As for the public’s perception, I’m not aware of any member of the public showing concern that a firefighter carries a knife.

So if the public does have a concern, maybe they would like to comment on this matter and give reasons why they would feel threatened. We have to carry axes on our belts when attending a fire so maybe they will be the next item to be removed.

I hope this has cleared up the matter about firefighters “hurting themselves”. I know we live in a world where we should all be covered in bubble wrap but we do a job where we attend incidents to help and assist people who have the need for us, not to cause harm to them or injure ourselves.

Name and address withheld