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"We have had a busy weekend in a number of ways - especially operationally.

There was a serious incident in Salford where a youngster was playing with matches - really from curiosity rather than anything sinister - but which sadly lead to a serious fire.  Thankfully his elder sister knew what to do from watching fire safety videos at school.  These kinds of incident serve to reinforce just how important it is that we get in to schools and homes and educate people.

Which leads to another incident whereby one of our off duty firefighters encountered a fire with someone involved and, as a consequence of hearing a smoke alarm,  was able to effect a rescue.

Finally - and tragically - we had a fire death in Eccles.  Investigations continue so it would be wrong to comment more at this stage.  Nevertheless this tragedy - and the two other incidents with somewhat more positive outcomes - continue to remind us just how important it is to maintain our safety work.  The reality is our emergency response times for all three were extremely quick.  This is not to suggest we don't need to continue to provide a first class emergency response, but it is to give a big clue about our future thinking as we deliberate on budget reductions.  Safety and prevention activity is not something we will or can only do with our 'spare' time or capacity - it will remain a core part of day to day life on stations and part of the fabric of what we do."

Last update: 13/06/2011 09:13:30