Crowd Funding for Barry Martin.

[He's Spartacus!]

It just saddens me bill, we're supposed to have a team spirit in the fire service and we can't come up with this amount ourselves, never mind the general public. Hope his family get a decent amount from the union.

[ABee]

I thought there was around 30,000 FFs across the Uk of all ranks and duty systems and god knows how many retirees.

In fact there's 5,000 + FFs in London alone, so if only around 2/3rds of the LFB donated £10 it would be well over £30k

I really am hugely surprised at this figure and must ask is it a communications failure (not enough people knew?) or a fire service community failure? (Not enough people cared?)

If its the latter, I will be very disappointed

[bill.advanced]

I thought there was around 30,000 FFs across the Uk of all ranks and duty systems and god knows how many retirees.

In fact there's 5,000 + FFs in London alone, so if only around 2/3rds of the LFB donated £10 it would be well over £30k

I really am hugely surprised at this figure and must ask is it a communications failure (not enough people knew?) or a fire service community failure? (Not enough people cared?)

If its the latter, I will be very disappointed

ABee every firefighter in the U.K. must have known. what happened. And let’s not forget all those like myself who are retired also. I reckon the fbu lottery will add to the figure. But possibly you could all sign up for a donation taken from your wages in the event of a death on duty. Poor show from ourselves in my honest opinion.

[bill.advanced]

It just saddens me bill, we're supposed to have a team spirit in the fire service and we can't come up with this amount ourselves, never mind the general public. Hope his family get a decent amount from the union.

Possibly as fire brigades union members you could ask about what the lottery they run is doing. I know they gave a ff from Greenock £30,000 after Andy was paralysed.
They have over £100,00 in the kitty. I would have thought at least a similar amount for Barrie’s family would be the minimum. Of course we don’t know if Barry was a union member. But that should make no difference regarding the lottery which is funded partly by retired ex union members like myself.

[noisycat]

The Police used to have £10 I think, taken out of their salaries ,automatically in the event of the death of an officer in the course of duty. This was at one time suggested in the fire service but was never introduced.

[Stressed]

I do wonder about how well something like this is publicised. I would like to think that most of those that did not donate did not know about the donation page!

[bill.advanced]

I do wonder about how well something like this is publicised. I would like to think that most of those that did not donate did not know about the donation page!

Sorry Stressed I totally refuse to believe this.
This world we live in has never been more connected than it is today.
I and many others put this on my FB page.
I went online to look for Barry’s crowdfunding, and my computer skills could only be described as basic. Sorry, no excuses, a ff was killed and he and his family have been let down. Not by the government, the fbu, the public, the employers, but by us.
The only way this can be resolved is to be honest, Barry has been let down by his fellow ffs, let’s hope something is done for the next person who faces his fate. If there’s a voluntary fund set up, let retired members join, I will be more than happy to sign up. This is a sad end to a sad event.

[ABee]

You are right Bill. Even on a one pump retained station, its impossible to believe one of the crew wouldn't have heard about the appeal on social media and spread the word- and lets be honest, we didnt have all this connectivity back in the day and it didnt stop relatively huge donations after these thankfully rare events

I also feel £10 is a bit of a slap in the face as we were contributing this amount in the 90s if not before. It really is shocking

[bill.advanced]

You are right Bill. Even on a one pump retained station, its impossible to believe one of the crew wouldn't have heard about the appeal on social media and spread the word- and lets be honest, we didnt have all this connectivity back in the day and it didnt stop relatively huge donations after these thankfully rare events

I also feel £10 is a bit of a slap in the face as we were contributing this amount in the 90s if not before. It really is shocking

I refuse to pull any punches here, this is utterly shamefull.
If every ff in the U.K. put just £10, (the price of two coffees and cake) Barrie’s wife would be in receipt of £300,000.
Don’t ask what the fire brigades union, the employers, or anyone else should have done, go look in the mirror, and ask what did I do. This young man gave his life, is his life not worth a tenner to the vast majority in the fire service.:mad:

[bill.advanced]

Just made my third donation, the first for two days, by anyone.