Since the turn of the century, a number of events have hammered home the UK's need for a more coordinated response to emergency situations.
The attacks of 11 September 2001 were the first trigger for a shake-up of how emergency services should respond to drastic situations. Last summer's floods and those of September have further concentrated minds.
The destruction of the World Trade Centre in New York led to a number of measures, including a single national framework for civil protection in the UK and the setting up of local resilience forums - partnerships of local authorities, fire, police, ambulance and other bodies involved in emergency response.
That has helped, but it was not enough to provide an effective response to the floods of last June and July. More than 7,000 people had to be rescued in two months of flooding. Although coordination has improved since then, hundreds of people still had to be evacuated from their homes during the most recent floods.
Sir Michael Pitt - the civil servant appointed to assess the event - was hard-hitting in his review of the floods . While paying tribute to the dedication of all the organisations involved - including the fire and rescue service, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, the armed forces and many voluntary bodies - Pitt says there was a "lack of clarity" about who was responsible for carrying out and coordinating flood rescue, and this placed both the public and members of the emergency teams at risk. Response was hampered, delayed and made less effective because different emergency services work in different ways. There was no common understanding of command, control and risk.
The police have a duty to coordinate any emergency responses to inland water incidents, fire and rescue services to respond to fires and hazardous material releases, and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and Environment Agency to flood defences.
Pitt wants a dedicated, national system for flood rescue, with better coordination of those in the front line, whose job it is to respond first: local authorities, fire, police and ambulance services.
This would be lead by the fire service who would have coordination made part of their legal duties. That is not the case at the moment, and the Fire Brigades Union says this means fire authorities are being prevented from applying for additional funding for the extra equipment, training and personnel needed to deal with the increased risk of flooding. This view is shared by chief fire officers.
"Such a statutory duty for inland flooding and water events will provide a significant improvement on our ability to protect our communities from the threats to life and health that flooding presents," says Gordon Hunter, assistant chief fire officer at Essex Fire and Rescue Service.
But the idea of the fire service leading a national flood rescue service runs counter to the existing emergency framework, which is based on the police being in ultimate charge of emergency situations.
Communication
In Gloucestershire last summer, the police took the lead. Gloucestershire police constable Timothy Brain, who was overall commander of the county's response to the floods, says that worked well. Particularly helpful, says Brain, was the fact that all three emergency services in Gloucestershire now share the same building. "We are all close and on the same site here and proximity is really important. When we need to speak to each other, we can communicate by crossing the floor and talking."
The emergency services will have to wait until the government's draft National Flood Emergency Framework, due by the end of the year, to know if the fire brigade will be put in charge or not.
Whatever the outcome, there is an urgent need for better training and equipment. Working in, on, or near water and swift water rescue requires specialist equipment and training, which places high demands on resources and budgets.
The FBU said that the problems last year were "startling": very few fire crews had even basic waterproof clothing. Often there were no life jackets to wear or poles to test the depth of the water. Crews worked in heavy kit designed to protect them from fires. Some worked in darkness without torches or hand-held lamps.
The government's £200m New Dimension project, set up after September 11, provides funding for equipment and training to a range of threats. It financed, for example, a new high-volume pump for Essex fire service, while the county's resilience forum has resulted in greater partnership with other local bodies
Crucial role
Pitt also recognises the crucial role played by voluntary bodies. These organisations were often first on the scene last year and added significantly to the response efforts. But many charities - including the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and the British Red Cross, as well as others with highly relevant expertise, such as mountain rescue - found their skills ignored in the early stages of the floods.
"There were some examples where our capabilities were not utilised in a timely way or fully enough," says Vanessa Spiller, head of UK emergency planning and response at the British Red Cross. "There should be one organisation that prioritises when all the voluntary organisations turn up, so we know where to go and what to do if there's a crisis.
"We provide everyday back-up to the emergency services and our relationship with the ambulance and fire services across the country is very strong, so we welcome any way in which things can be done better together."
The biggest challenge for any potential national flood rescue service may be quite different: a more coordinated response to floods means the emergency services will have to start sharing information far more effectively. In the present atmosphere of anxiety about lost data, that may be an unrealistic aim.
