The island with 360 residents has been without fire cover since November because the two men's beards prevent them from wearing breathing apparatus in an emergency. Fire crews from Lerwick will be ferried across the harbour should a fire break out on Bressay, while officers from the town have been handing out fire prevention advice to the island's residents.
The Vikings' stubbornness has been condemned by Shetland community safety board vice chairman Allison Duncan, who has been trying without success to persuade the pair to lose their facial hair. “To know that a couple of firefighters are putting the safety of Bressay people at risk is absolutely crazy, it's mind boggling,” he said.
“There's elderly, frail people, there could be a car accident, there was a fire at the back end of Bressay. I've done my utmost to get them to see sense and get the appliance back on the run in the interests of the Bressay people.” Duncan confirmed that disciplinary action against two unnamed firefighters has been initiated. Guizer Jarl Lyle Tulloch who will lead this year’s fire festival said he did not want to comment.
2 comments:
I thought that shaving was just a part of the barbarian northern European heritage, along with their tattoos, democracy, alcohol, and queens? When Alexander of Macedon (called The Great by Europeans) brought his armies to Asia his solders were the first men to arrive more or less clean shaven, looking like women. Isn't this gender-bending the media is preaching today just a return to European tribal traditions, after a brief European encounter with ancient civilization via the Church?
@Anon 12:02am: For scandinavia it became a sort of class/religious-issue to shave. Go back a bit and you see that beards were predominant due to the climate.
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