Powers in An Emergency
Like any of the other three main emergency services (Police, Ambulance and HM Coastguard), LA / PS Fire Service personnel are given substantial powers of entry (and other legal power) to carry out their duties. They are legally obliged to respond to any form of fire related emergency and any other emergency which presents a risk to life or property when called upon to do so. They also have a responsibility to provide certain services in the event of terrorist attack. Except in all but a few circumstances, there is generally no occasion where a public fire service can not legally gain entry to premises or property to fight fire or protect life. As such, obstructing a firefighter or fire officer from carrying out their duties is a serious criminal offence.
Read more about this topic: Local Authority Fire Service
Famous quotes containing the words powers and/or emergency:
“Anti-Nebraska, Know-Nothings, and general disgust with the powers that be, have carried this county [Hamilton County, Ohio] by between seven and eight thousand majority! How people do hate Catholics, and what a happiness it was to show it in what seemed a lawful and patriotic manner.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“War-making is one of the few activities that people are not supposed to view “realistically”; that is, with an eye to expense and practical outcome. In all-out war, expenditure is all-out, unprudent—war being defined as an emergency in which no sacrifice is excessive.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)