“Firefighters are firefighters all over the world. That fraternity will always be there,” says Jim Malone, retired firefighter and member of the Scottish branch of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU). It’s a brotherhood and sisterhood, Malone says, that surpasses conflict over race, religion and physical boundaries.
And Malone should know. He’s the Scottish coordinator of the FBU’s Palestinian support team, which helps train firefighters in the Palestinian civil defence – emergency services that serve most of the West Bank - and those in east Jerusalem, Nablus and Hebron.
The Scottish FBU officially linked up with Nablus in 1982 and has supported firefighters there with donations of equipment ever since. Firefighters from the Palestinian civil defence have travelled to Scotland for training and firefighters from Scotland regularly travel to Nablus to carry out training. Malone has just returned from the West Bank from his most recent trip there as part of his humanitarian work with the FBU.
Between 1 October and 30 November this year, 103 Palestinians and 17 Israelis were killed and hundreds more injured, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. These statistics make it hard to imagine any fraternity between Israeli and Palestinian firefighters, but Malone is adamant that they work together when necessary and that there is sincere respect on both sides.
Israeli firefighters, he says, have been impressed by the professionalism and dedication of the Palestinian firefighters. In 2010, Palestinian firefighters were praised after assisting the effort to battle a devastating fire in Israel’s Carmel mountains, which killed 43 Israelis. It was seen as an act of solidarity, where humanitarianism knows no borders.
Fire departments are severely affected by the difficult conditions in the West Bank and Gaza. In Hebron, a volatile city in the West Bank home to a holy site where 1,000 Jewish settlers live among a Palestinian population of 200,000, the city’s 35 firefighters have no structural kit, no helmets, fire gloves or fire boots. Malone, who visited the station in Hebron in October , said he found the situation dangerous and unacceptable. “They’re denied the basics,” he says.
When the Hebron municipality asked the Scottish FBU for assistance, it stated that firefighters are unable to attend an average of two out of nine fires. In February this year, three children lost their lives in a house fire caused by a faulty heater. Firefighters arrived at their home in Hebron, but without a hydraulic ladder or suitable kit, they were unable to tackle the flames or gain external access to the fourth floor flat. The Hebron municipality believes lives could have been saved if its fire service had the proper equipment.
Malone says the checkpoints dotted around the West Bank and the wall separating the Israeli state and Palestinian territories cause delays in response times for emergency services. These restrictions on movement have increasingly become a source of tension and violence, even for the emergency services.
One firefighter was shot in the shoulder while driving a fire engine past a checkpoint, according to Malone. “Firefighters will try not to expose themselves. But at the same time they’ll turn up to any incident they’re called to,” he says. “They’re not going to discriminate between human beings if they need the help of the fire brigade,” he says.
But it is often very difficult for the firefighters to move around. “They just do the best with what they have. But their plight is desperate,” says Malone. “If there’s a fire in the village and you have to wait several hours to get through, you’re not going to save anyone.”
In 2011 the FBU raised money to buy two fire engines and drive them 2,500 miles to the West Bank to donate to the fire service in Nablus. Unfortunately one broke down on the way, but the other made it to the city and is still being used today.
Despite donations, there is still a shortage of equipment. For water rescue missions in an area prone to severe flooding and extreme weather conditions, the Palestinian firefighters are having to usethe kind of dinghies you would buy for a holiday in Spain. “It’s frustrating that the Palestinians are unable to carry out their jobs better because their kit and equipment is such poor quality,” says Malone.
UK firefighters have vital breathing apparatus sets, for example, but in Hebron the firefighters have basic masks to keep the smoke out. “They just put the mask on, and they’ll go in the fire and try to get as close as they can,” says Malone.
International support has funded the purchase of some better quality equipment and with support from the FBU, the Scottish fire service and politicians, firefighters from the Palestinian civil defence have received training in firefighting, water rescue, traffic collision, and urban search and rescue training.
But Malone says there’s more to do. “We’ll do what we can, even under the austerity agenda. The Scottish people and the Scottish government have been outstanding, and we will fight for the Scottish government to continue that support.”
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