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FBU Conference: Firefighters vow to defy merciless eviction callouts

FIREFIGHTERS have vowed to defy instructions to assist in evictions after non-unionised staff mercilessly turfed out homeless families occupying a bank.

Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service personnel joined police officers to storm the building at 4am yesterday.

The former Bank of England office had been occupied by the Love Activists protest group since mid-April and had been turned into a shelter for the homeless.

But the Fire Brigades Union conference yesterday suspended standing orders to hear an emergency motion condemning the eviction and praising the protesters for taking direct action to tackle the housing crisis.

The motion called on members “to collectively resist by all means any instruction to participate in similar evictions.” It unanimously carried.

The irony was not lost on delegates wearing T-shirts bearing the slogan: “We rescue people, not banks,” which the FBU adopted from firefighters who refused to assist evictions in the north of Spain.

As Merseyside FBU secretary Mark Rowe described the events of the eviction, delegates broke the eery silence with cries of “Shame!”

Mr Rowe said that bosses had picked out non-union members in the knowledge of the FBU’s refusal to collaborate in attacks on the vulnerable.

A Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said that the brigade had issued a prohibition notice to the occupation, citing safety hazards found in an April inspection.

“Firefighters were on standby at the scene as a precautionary measure in order to provide safe systems of work for police officers from Merseyside Police,” he said.

“The police requested assistance to gain access to internal security doors within the building which required the use of specialist equipment and confined space procedures.”

Mr Rowe hit out at the use of public money and resources to secure private property.

“If some service managers have their way, it will turn out that we don’t rescue people not banks, but instead that we rescue banks from people,” he stormed.

FBU general secretary Matt Wrack, who had earlier warned that mooted mergers of blue-light services would compromise the humanitarian purpose of fire brigades, condemned the development as an utter disgrace.

“Delivering a humanitarian service does not involve kicking people out onto the streets,” he blasted.

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