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Theft of grit from Windermere Fire Station bin 'could have put lives in danger'

5:17pm Saturday 11th February 2012 in News Photograph of the Author By Gazette newsdesk

A FIRE chief has slammed thieves who stole road salt from outside Windermere Fire Station, claiming they could have put lives at risk.

Cumbria Fire Service's Kendal-based group manager Andrew Brodie said between six and seven bags of grit were taken on Thursday from a bin that should only be used by station staff in Windermere.

"The grit is fire station property and is there to be used by station staff for their safety as well as ensuring fire engines can get out to emergencies," said Mr Brodie.

"The station frontage and approach road, which is on an incline, was gritted on Thursday morning but when an officer went back later to do more gritting, the grit box had been emptied.

"This could have had potential consequences for fire service personnel while they were in the vicinity of the station as well as members of the public who may have required their assistance. If they can't get the fire engines out, lives could well be put at risk."

Despite the grit theft, Mr Brodie said the Windermere crew managed to attend several incidents caused by the freezing conditions on Thursday.

He added that a lock had now been fitted to the grit box.

Comments(8)

Moonbase says...
8:05pm Sat 11 Feb 12

'True Grit' at it's best.

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zaney5 says...
1:51pm Sun 12 Feb 12

Maybe if SLDC had done a better job at gritting the roads in that area it wouldn't have been nicked.

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Lakeuk says...
5:18pm Sun 12 Feb 12

Zaney- It's not SLDC's job to grit the roads

Whole gritting saga has highlighted a lack of understanding of what gritting can/can't, what CCC / SLDC promise they'll do and some are on a different planet in thinking the council should be gritting their side streets and paths.

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zaney5 says...
8:42pm Sun 12 Feb 12

Well whoevers job it is then. Some of the residential roads in that area were a nightmare. While I don't condone theft I can understand why. At the last property I lived at we had 2 grit bins on the street and they were empty throughout the bad weather, DESPITE me ringing the hotline number on the side of the bin to inform them. So it's hardly surprising that people get hacked off regarding the whole gritting saga when even the powers that be can't be arsed to help.

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Lakeuk says...
9:16pm Sun 12 Feb 12

There's the misapprehension, the council have never said they'll grit residential roads - they're clear in what they do and why, check out their website

There are 10,000 grit bins in Cumbria - what's are the chances of those getting refilled in a hurry - zero, you'd need an army

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Cgarnett says...
11:31pm Thu 16 Feb 12

Should be easy to catch them, they'll live on the only well gritted road in the South Lakes...

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whiskeydelta says...
1:32pm Fri 17 Feb 12

What's grit!! Never saw a gritter last week - reminds me of the old protest song "where have all the gritters - sorry flowers gone"

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tictoc1 says...
4:14pm Fri 17 Feb 12

I think it's awful that someone stole from where they did. But this article doesn't state whether the incident was reported to the council and whether the council acted and re-filled the bins? Therefore I don't think it's fair to blame the council. And whilst we're on about the council, particular people constantly have a moan on this website. I would just like to praise the council/gritters/who
ever deals with it all. I live out of town, it started snowing on the saturday afternoon, put over 6 inches down and the gritters were out, snow ploughing and gritting, at 8am sunday morning. My road was passable by 9am and clear by 11am. So thank you!!! And to those that DO moan, next time you're not happy about something, act on it, instead of sitting on your computer all day doing sweet FA!

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