Ex-deputy fire chief claims he was 'scapegoated'

An ex-deputy fire chief who retired amid claims his service operated with a "culture of fear" said he was made a scapegoat.

Jim McNeil was suspended from Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service last year along with chief fire officer Graeme Binning after a review of concerns raised by individuals in the brigade.

In October, it was confirmed both men had left the organisation, which is run by Northumberland County Council.

McNeil's suspension letter referred to bullying and the use of foul language but he claimed he was targeted for raising concerns about the service's community safety performance. The council said it was "not appropriate" for it to comment.

Binning left his job after an employment appeals meeting of the council.

The suspensions came after what was described as a neutral assessment into the organisation's culture.

Leaked copies emerged earlier this year with references to a "culture of fear", with senior officers reacting "negatively to any and all challenge" and "inappropriate language and comments" being used.

However, McNeil said: "It's like a Gatling gun being filled with allegations when that handle is churned and things are fired at you."

He said he had never been identified as having anything to do with bullying and would be "the very first person" to stand up to it.

Having been suspended in March 2025, he retired seven months later because he had "no confidence" he would have a fair hearing, he said.

"I was scapegoated out," he said. "There was a witch-hunt to blame-shift away from how bad things were."

The former opencast miner spent almost 30 years as a firefighter, working through the ranks and becoming deputy chief in 2023.

Preventing fires through community safety inspections was a priority for him, he said.

Those inspections were carried out by fire and rescue services, often on the recommendation of other agencies such as the NHS, for those most at risk, including elderly and disabled people.

But concerns about these were raised in a confidential fire service internal report in early 2024 which talked of "serious, critical and systematic failings" where "approximately 4,347 'safe and well' records and 511 partner referrals require investigation".

McNeil said he "found email accounts with hundreds of referrals not actioned", including high-risk referrals for vulnerable members of the community.

In one case, two fire crews were sent to an elderly man's home after a plastic kettle had been put on a gas ring and, when they came to add him to the reporting system for vulnerable people, found he had already been referred "and we hadn't done anything about it", he said.

McNeil said he and Binning faced resistance from elsewhere in the organisation when they tried to address the issue.

"I was getting pushed back, I was being undermined, I was being criticised," he said.

"I was fighting back on what was an organisational lift-the-carpet-and-brush-things-away."

In April this year, fire inspectors issued the Northumberland service with an "accelerated cause of concern" - meaning the service was required to produce a plan to address the issue - for not gathering information about high-risk premises effectively.

In particular, site-specific information which was used to guide firefighters' tactics was only gathered for 37 out of 478 high-risk premises.

"It horrified me once again that the community and firefighters were going to be put at risk," McNeil said.

He said His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services "does not put forward that type of cause of concern - an accelerated cause of concern - lightly".

He felt the organisation had taken its eye "well and truly off the ball".

McNeil said he had no criticism of the work of frontline firefighters and was still in touch with some of his former colleagues.

"People are telling me all the time that they're scared to put their head up because look what happened to the chief and the deputy," he said.

"There are multiple people that have got in touch with me who are petrified to be at work."

Binning told the BBC he was "unable to make a comment at this time".

Northumberland County Council said: "It is not appropriate for us to comment on individual HR cases or former employees.

"Our previous statement on the accelerated cause of concern remains."

In that statement, the current chief fire officer Keith Carruthers said an action plan on high-risk buildings inspections had been submitted to the fire inspectorate "which will ensure all sites are reviewed appropriately".

A full report by the inspectorate is due in the next few weeks.

Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.