Fire commanders delayed the recovery of a woman lying at the bottom of a disused mine shaft, with fatal consequences, because they were overly preoccupied with adhering to management’s rescue policy, a fatal accident inquiry has found.

Thousands of people who provided assistance in the aftermath of the September 11 attack in New York are suffering significant ill-health effects, the US government has revealed in the run-up to the 10th anniversary of the atrocity.

The London Fire Brigade (LFB) has been accused of putting fire-fighters lives at risk, following publication of a report by the HSE on health and safety management at the Brigade.

Police officers who undertake heroic acts in the course of their operational duties will not be prosecuted for health and safety breaches by the HSE, according to new guidance released by the regulator today (7 July).

The Police service should not be released from the duties laid down in the HSWA 1974, the House of Lords has concluded.

Tata Steel has been sentenced for safety offences for the second time in just over a month following a fire at its facility in Scunthorpe.

A local authority has admitted to a breach of health and safety law in relation to the deaths of four fire-fighters who were sent to tackle a warehouse fire.

Energy giant Shell UK must pay £1.24 million in fines and costs following an explosion and fire at its Bacton gas terminal in Norfolk.

The owner of a fireworks company has been given a 36-week suspended prison sentence after a trainee was blinded when a mortar exploded in his face.

The owner of a fireworks display company has pleaded guilty to health and safety and fraud charges following an incident where a display mortar exploded in the face of a trainee.

The plethora of position statements and explanatory notes issued recently in relation to risk-taking by the emergency services has merely emphasised that it’s ‘business as usual’. If police officers and fire-fighters are to be truly ‘liberated’, argues Bill Gough, more attention needs to be paid to those who set the rules in the command-and-control structure.

David Cameron seems committed to releasing the Police from the ‘burden’ of health and safety rules that might impede their duty to the public, while Lord Young believes that all emergency services should be excluded from the HSWA. Peter Atkinson considers whether the same rigorous health and safety workplace standards exercised in non-emergency situations should apply to the blue-light services in a crisis.

Designing safer buildings requires the fire-safety engineer to gain a full understanding of the user’s needs and intentions in running the building, as Andy Passingham explains.

Can the Police Service fully comply with the Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act (HSWA) and, at the same time, deliver the service level expected by the general public? Chris Roberts and Richard Booth explore the situations in which police officers can act bravely and yet, by doing so, expose themselves and their management to prosecution.

John Davidson emphasises the importance of using credible contractors for installing and maintaining fire safety equipment and explains how to identify them.

Emergency-services workers should be better protected against occupational hazards, particularly in light of current environmental, economic and political developments, which suggest an increase in the number and severity of events in which such workers may be involved.

The majority of people believe they would respond more quickly to a voice alarm during an evacuation of a building, a survey on behalf of Notifier by Honeywell suggests.

The University of Wolverhampton has teamed up with West Midlands Fire Service to launch a new BSc (Hons) fire and rescue degree course from September 2010.

A Liverpool healthcare company has signed an agreement to provide Formula One team, Force India, with a new fire safety product.

Engineers at Sheffield Hallam University have been working with firefighters from South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue to design firefighting robots.

When the disposable respirators used by Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service were no longer suitable to meet respiratory protective equipment (RPE) fit-testing requirements, diversified technology company 3M provided a tailored solution.

The SafeCaddy is described as a compact mobile emergency-prevention unit, which enables multiple fire-safety and first-aid solutions to be housed in interchangeable compartments to suit the needs of individual users.

Draeger says its new Webshop provides easy access to a wide range of industrial safety solutions.

The Vortex range of multi-channel gas and fire-detection control panels now includes an ATEX-certified Exd Flameproof version, the Vortex FP, says Crowcon.

ZOLL Medical Corporation, a manufacturer of medical devices and related software solutions, says it is now supplying the British Heart Foundation (BHF) with the ZOLL AED Plus® and ZOLL AED Pro® Automatic External Defibrillators.