This goes much deeper than political correctness. It all stems from the 'modernisation' of the fire brigade doing away with the bunks that have been used successfully for decades. See this link on the same page. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/4384581.stm
That is exactly what I suspected. Some burocrat decided they'd sleep on recliners and when he found they weren't sleeping on recliners he made it his mission to force them to sleep on recliners.
How stupid.