8. Open the brackets. Use the correct form of the verb.

1. Fire departments ( to battle) fires in homes when another fire broke out in office buildings in a neighbouring street.

2. The men and women who (to work) for fire departments that evening also helped save people trapped in cars after that disastrous accident.

3. Rescuers ( to save) victims of flood so they (to need) the help of fire-fighters very much.

4. That person (to prevent) the fire by enforcing fire safety laws, but his colleagues knew little about fire hazards.

5. When a fire broke out, all the people in the community (to rush) to the scene.

6. In colonial America each fire battalion was commanded by a captain, 7 fire companies (to make up) a battalion.

7. In early 1800’s departments didn’t have staff that (to work) in such areas as fire prevention, training, and arson investigations.

SPEAKING

1. Decide whether the following statements are true or false. If necessary - correct them.

Begin with:

• I’m afraid that’s wrong; you are not quite right;

• that’s not quite so;

• I think, you are mistaken;

• as far as I know;

• on other contrary;

• I don’t think so; according to the story.

1. Vigils never served as the police force.

2. You can’t believe, but scholars know a lot about the development of fire-fighting in Europe before the Great Fire of London.

3. It’s a pity, but insurance companies did nothing to protect their clients’ property.

4. It’s no use pulling down building next to the burning structure.

5. The wardens’ chief’s duty was to inspect chimneys for fire hazards and to patrol the streets at night and watch for fires.

6. Prominent citizens thought service in fire departments below them.

7. Hand pumps have never been replaced in the fire departments.

8. The USFA has nothing to do with the National Academy for Fire Prevention and Control in Washington D.C.

2. Work in pairs.

Discuss the following questions together, and then tell the rest of your class what you think.

1. What changes have there been in the fire fighting organization of Ukraine for the past 300 years?

2. What does the USA do better in organizing their fire service in your opinion?

3. Is it a good idea to have paid and volunteer fire departments?

CHECKING TASKS

1. Write an email about Fire Departments in Ukraine and in your city.

1. Write a paragraph about the main kinds of Fire Departments in Ukraine.

UNIT 6.

Emergency Services in Ukraine and in the world History.

Reading

HISTORY OF THE 999 SYSTEM AND FIRE BRIGADES

Before automatic exchanges the public telephone system was based on large numbers of local manually operated telephone exchanges, many of which were found in local tradesmen's premises manned on a "sleeping watch" basis by the occupier. All calls, local or long distance, were connected manually by the exchange operators, since automatic dialling was then in its infancy. At that time Fire Brigades were also completely decentralised (organised in the form of local units) and created few communication problems. In cases of emergency subscribers called the local exchange , where upon the operator connected them to a local point for the receipt of the emergency calls. There was little if any need for the co-ordination of communications planning over a wide area. The 999 system came about via the Metropolitan Police in London as they found that their Police Stations were being overrun either by visitors to the station alerting them to emergency situations or trying to phone them in the growing trend of using the new invention, the telephone. Not every one could remember or knew the telephone number of the local Police Station. In November of 1927 the general public in London were advised " if you have an emergency dial 0". When the operators answers ask for the service you require. The Metropolitan Police maintained this service till 1934 then they introduced their Information Room with the famous number of Whitehall 1212. Where all emergency calls ended up. Emergency calls via telephone kept increasing and telephone operators were unable to identify emergency calls from other operator service calls. As is normal a disaster of some description was required to prompt government action. In November of 1935 a fire occurred in London in which five people died, in the inquiry which followed it became apparent that a system was required that alerted telephone operators to emergency calls. A parliamentary Committee called the Belgrave Committee examined the problems and set up various experiments in London.

The 999 system open in London in July 1937, it was 1938 before it reached Glasgow. It was the first service of its type in the world. There are two company's that look after the 999 telephone system, British Telecom and Cable & Wireless. The AMCs belonging to the GPO of yesteryear have been replaced by 15 Operator Assistance Centres (OAC) of British Telecom of today. Nation-wide these handle approximately 21 million emergency calls a year. This figure includes 6 million 999 calls made by mobile phones. It is anticipated that calls from mobile phones will grow to 12 million by the year 2000. These figures are quoted in a BT document issued to Emergency Services in 1996.

BT receive 33,000 calls each week mostly due to children playing and misdials.Cable & Wireless have three OACs and they dealt with 3 million emergency calls in 1996.

3. Put the verbs in brackets into the correct voice and tense-forms. Read the text.

Organization

The American National Red Cross (to be) a semiofficial agency of the United States. The President of the United States served as honorary chairman. A board of Governors (to direct) the activities of the organization.

American Red Cross national headquarters(to be) in Washington, D.C. Area offices (to be) in Alexandria, Virginia; Atlanta, Georgia; St. Louis, Missouri; and San Francisco, California. Every community in the country (to serve) by a local Red Cross chapter. ( There be) more than 3.100 chapters.

The work of the organization, (to carry) on by a permanent staff and about 1,500,000 volunteers throughout the country. The money for Red Cross services ( to contribute) by the public.

Red Cross Youth.

Young people (to serve) the American Red Cross through activities of the Red Cross youth, which (to include) student-members in more than 37,000elementary and high schools, plus students in hundreds of colleges and universities. Besides (to serve) in their home communities, Red Cross Youth members ( to send) gift boxes, correspondence albums, paintings, and other items to children in other countries. They also (to make) articles (to give) to soldiers and veterans in hospitals. Red Cross Youth members (to make part) in all Red Cross activities where young people (to need). Youth programs (to set up) tutoring partnerships with children, recruit teenagers for volunteer work in hospitals, and (to set up) volunteer projects in nursing homes.