§ Viscount RIDLEYasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will reconsider their decision not to allow Army personnel on fire-fighting duties to use breathing apparatus even where there are soldiers fully trained in its use, and where such apparatus is available outside fire stations and where its use would be supervised by senior fire officers.
§ Lord WINTERBOTTOMThe decision was based on the grave risks to Servicemen with no previous experience in firefighting of attempting to use breathing apparatus in the dangerous environment close to the seat of the fire. While it is a comparatively simple matter to learn how to use the apparatus it takes a period of 2223WA months to learn how to avoid the dangers of using it within a burning or smoke-filled building. These considerations still hold good. There are, however, specialist RN and RAF firemen, equipped with breathing apparatus and fully trained to use it, who have been deployed in the major conurbations.