Plan to close Edinburgh's Marionville fire station would 'increase risk to community'

The station, which was built using the potentially dangerous Reinforced Autoclaved Aereated Concrete (RAAC), has been earmarked to shut in a review by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). But fire chiefs say no decision has been made and nothing will happen until the public have been consulted.

However, a petition has been launched on change.org by Marionville firefighter and Fire Brigades Union rep David Strachan to save the station from closure.

Marionville fire station is being proposed for closure | Google

Mr Strachan argues Marionville fire station is “a crucial resource in the east of Edinburgh, less than a mile from the city centre” and the closing it will mean “a huge increase in risk”.

He says: “Marionville was built using RAAC panels which means the station must be rebuilt. SFRS, due to lack of proper funding, are moving forward to permanently close the station. It is unacceptable that due to underfunding, firefighters and their community are now facing further risk due to chronic financial neglect.

“The closure of Marionville presents a huge increase in risk, with increased response times to a densely populated area of Edinburgh, a city where the population is increasing at an unprecedented rate.

“It also has knock-on effects, putting significantly increased pressure on surrounding fire stations, two of which are already the first and third busiest in Scotland. Resources are already spread far too thin in the Capital.

“It is a matter of minutes for a fire to go from manageable to fully developed, dramatically increasing the risk to people, property and firefighters.”

Edinburgh East Labour MP Chris Murray said: “The Marionville firefighters put their lives on the line every day to protect people in central and east Edinburgh.

“There is lots of student accommodation being built in that area, the population is going up a lot, there are a lot of tenemented streets - and any 999 call about a tenement requires two fire engines to attend.

“It’s also the city centre - so that means the Scottish Parliament, Holyrood Palace, the Festival and so on.

“If the closure goes ahead the nearest fire stations left would be Newcraighall at one end and McDonald Road at the other. Both of these have very congested routes to that part of Edinburgh. From Newcraighall, I’ve spent 40 minutes trying to get there in a car. The roads are clogged.

“And minutes really matter when it comes to a fire. The longer you leave a fire, the more dangerous it is for someone to get it, so you’ll get there three minutes later and it’s not safe enough to send firefighters in any more and you have to let it burn - or the risk to the firefighters themselves becomes so much higher.”

SFRS deputy assistant chief officer Andrew Girrity said: "We are currently in the midst of a service delivery review, which aims to ensure that our resources – our staff, stations and appliances – are matched to operational risk and demand across Scotland.

“We also must address urgent property issues including stations affected by RAAC, which includes Marionville Community Fire Station.

"We have now concluded an options appraisal and development process, and a number of change options have been recommended to progress to public consultation in the summer. This remains subject to final approval by the SFRS Board.

"Any permanent changes to our station footprint or how we deliver our services will only come after we have sought views from the public and a final decision has been made by the SFRS Board."