London Fire Brigade
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The London Fire Brigade (LFB) provides fire fighting and rescue services in London, UK. It is the third-largest fire department in the world with nearly 7000 staff. In 2004 they answered nearly 300,000 emergency calls, responded to 60,000 fires and over 5000 traffic accidents making it one of the busiest Fire brigades in the World considering it does not respond to EMS calls. As well as traditional fire fighting, the LFB respond to Hazardous material incidents, conduct emergency planning and perform fire safety inspections and education. It does not provide an ambulance service, this being performed by the London Ambulance Service.
The headquarters are in Lambeth, on the Albert Embankment, next to the River Thames, and close to Lambeth Bridge.
Since 2000 the brigade has been administered by the Greater London Authority through the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA).
History
Following a multitude of ad-hoc firefighting arrangements and the 1666 Great Fire of London, various insurance companies established fire fighting units to fight fires that occurred in buildings that their respective companies had insured. As the demands grew on the primitive fire brigades they began to co-operate with each other until, in 1833 the London Fire Engine Establishment was formed. With 80 firefighters and 13 fire stations, the unit was still a private enterprise, funded by the insurance companies and as such was responsible mainly for saving material goods from fire. Several large fires, most notably at the Palace of Westminster in 1834 and warehouses by the River Thames in 1861, spurred the insurance companies to lobby the government to provide the brigade at public expense and management. After due consideration, in 1865 the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act was passed, creating the Metropolitan Fire Brigade under the leadership of Captain (later Sir) Eyre Massey Shaw. In 1904 the brigade was officially renamed as the London Fire Brigade.During the Second World War, fire brigades were amalgamated into a single National Fire Service. The separate London Fire Brigade for the county of London was re-established in 1948. With the formation of Greater London in 1965, this absorbed most of the Middlesex Fire Brigade, the borough brigades for West Ham, East Ham and Croydon and parts of the Essex, Hertfordshire, Surrey and Kent brigades.
With the abolition of the Greater London Council in 1986, supervision of the force was transferred to the London Fire and Civil Defence Authority. It is now run by the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, who are under the authority of the Greater London Authority.
Fictional References
- The TV series London's Burning was based around a fictional Blue Watch at an LFB fire station.
See also
External links
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