London Fire

[rdm258]

Londonfireguy,
    Hey maybe you can explain to me how London Fire works. How many pieces of apparatus do they have, what is the staffing like. How do they dispatch alarms and responses to boxes. Does an engine go on EMS runs. What Special Ops units are staffed 24/7.
    Find it so interesting to learn form others. Thank you and I know asked a lot of information. Be safe. Rob

 

[londonfireguy]

A couple of guys have PM'd me with such info requests.

I serve at a south central London station, on the Blue Watch, i transfered into London 5 years ago from my local county brigade, hampshire fire and rescue, the largest none metropolitan brigade with 52 stations. London has, i think 112, but we keep closing them  :-\ :'(

London operates as per the home office regulations, that governs all UK brigades, the biggest difference to the FDNY is we do not respond to EMS runs, or medical calls, however, for some wierd and strange reason we are all DeFib trianed and trained first responders.....who thought that one up!!!

We recently went through a massive shake up after we 'went out of the doors' on strike, we kinda got rammed up the peverbial by the gvernment and out own union... so now they can shut stations as and when they can reasonably justify it, very much the same as it is in NYC.

We operate on the number of pumping applainces are required at a job; as a comparrison the to FDNY, as its only fair i do that as this is an FDNY forum, here goes;

A normal house fire in London would be a 4 Pump Fire-A 10-75.

Anything above a 4 P/F, would go to a 6 P/F- an All-Hands

An 8 P/F would be a 2nd alarm, and a 10 P/F would be  3rd.

Above and beyond that its hard to say whats what, as we operate differnetly, we done have roof teams etc. I am a qualified Aeriel OPerator, trained on the Mgairus 100ft Turntable ladder and the 102 ft Magirus Aerial Ladder Platform, we crew it with two, whereas FDNY crew their trucks with 6 FF's.

Since 9/11, and the attacks on the London Underground, we have made massive in-roads into 'Special OPs', with t one of the largest special operations division fleet of vehicles for a single fire and rescue service in the world.

We have around 15 Fire Rescue Units, the sane as ab FDNY Rescue company, trained in high angle rescue, swift water rescue, Extrication advanced rescue, heavy rescue, collapse rescue, Hazmat, and technical construction and K9 search and rescue. each unit has from 2 to 5 vehicles depending on their specialised role.

In addition, we have a dedicated CBRN team, (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear), who are, kinda, well, boring intelligant men in funny suits!!!! But im sure they do a good job, if needed!!!

We vary from stations that do 6,500 calls a year in central London, to stations that do under 300 calls a year in outer London, (got my eye on one of them ;D )

The stations that are consistantly busy for fires, maybe comparable to FDNY E290/L103, E75/L33 are Dagenham, Tottenham, Southall and West Norwood.

The same goes over here as it does in the FDNY, the busiest staions for calls, are not the busiest for fires.

Jarrod

 

[cfd123]

if they do not respond to EMS calls, what other type calls do they get sent on most often, besides fire calls?

 

[londonfireguy]

Sorry for the late reply, went to bed!!!

Mostly, we get Automatic Fire Alarms, Persons Shut In Lifts, Flooding, Road Traffic Accidents, Hazmat, Person Locked Out, Person in Precarious Position (jumpers) One Unders (person under Tube Train), and just about everything else that London, its diverse community and tourists want to throw at us.

A typical day shift starts at 0900, with a roll call, duties detailed, notes of the day, and anything of importance. We then check our appliances, our BA sets, and have a cup of tea and catch up with each other, as we would have just had four days off.

All equipment standard tests are carried out between 9am and 10;30. At 10:30 we have what is called 'Stand easy', where we all gather round the mess table, drink more tea, eat toast or crumpets, talk and if your the target of the jokes for stand easy god help you  ;D :

At 1100, we go out in the drill yard for drills, most stations have 5 story drill towers, we drill in pumping, ladders, high rise procedures, RTA's, knots and lines, BA anything the Guvner wants to do really, if we have probies on the watch, drills are structured to their needs.

At about 1200, we 'Knock off make up'. end the drill and make up all the gear. betweem 1200 and 1300 its anything that needs doing, morning visits, fire safety visits, fitting smoke alarms, or winding someone up :

At 1300 we have our hour long dinner break, 'stand easy' again, round the mess table for a dinner thrown together by the cook and our mess manager.

In the afternoon, its a lecture, or any visits or outside duties that need to be done. We have another official 'stand easy at 1600, and at 1630 its gym time.

We then go off duty at 1800, all this depends ofcourse on 'shouts', fire calls, we can go from having nothing all day, to never seeing the inside of the station going from call to call.

We do two days, then go onto Two nights. Again roll call at 1800, checks and standard tests, a lecture or outside visit between 1900 and 2000, and after 8pm we eat, and wait for the next shout, standing down officially at midnight, until 0700. Going off duty at 0900, after two nights, its four days off  ;D ;D

Jarrod

 

[LondonMedic]

Hour long dinner break?
Round the mess table?
Eat?

:-[

 

[RatPack2]

Good info about LFB.  I happen to work in New London, in Connecticut.  I was wondering if you could elaborate as to who would do the typical "truck work" at a building fire (searches, forcible entry, overhaul, etc...) if there are only 2 FF's on each truck company.  Also, who does FAST work and how many Chief's respond to a typical "10-75".  Thanks for the info.

 

[rdm258]

Thank you very much LFG. Excellent info.

 

[londonfireguy]

Hour long dinner break?
Round the mess table?
Eat?

:-[

We would love to be busier, London Medic, but the government has different ideas unfortunately!!!!  :-\

 

[londonfireguy]

Good info about LFB.  I happen to work in New London, in Connecticut.  I was wondering if you could elaborate as to who would do the typical "truck work" at a building fire (searches, forcible entry, overhaul, etc...) if there are only 2 FF's on each truck company.  Also, who does FAST work and how many Chief's respond to a typical "10-75".  Thanks for the info.

We dont operate at all like US FD's, every firefighter is trained to do every job, and rotates between the different rolls throughout the duration of the tour of duty (2 days 2nights), detailed to his duty that shift on the roll call.

Each front line pumping appliance, (an engine) is crewed by a minimum of 4 firefighters and a maximum of 6, consisting of an officer, a driver, and 2-4 FF's in the back depending on crewing levels, dictated by leave, sickness, guys on courses, on light duties etc.

Each pumping appliance carries about 1800 litres of water, and carries 14 lengths of 25m long, 45 and 70mm diameter hose, along with two 19mm high pressure hosereels, working of the onboard tank for a first strike capability.(booster reels). The pump output is 2250 LPM. Manufactured by Godiva fire engineering.

The appliance also carries a compliment of ladders, the Pump ladder carries a 13.5m ladder, a 9m ladder, a roof ladder and a short extension ladder. The pump carries the same, minus the 13.5m.

Each pumping appliance carries RTA extrication gear, and defib, foam making equipment, hazmat suits and HAZMAT containment pack. Each FF has a Breathing Apparatus set, wich is the Dreager PA 94 set, operating at 200 bar, giving us around 30 mins normal working duration but in reality its only about 20 mins at the most. We DO NOT enter a fire building, for firefighting or search and rescue without donning up, going through entry control, handing in our BA tally, it tells the entry control officer who we are, our surname, rank, what station we are from, and how much air we have, and calculates what time we should be coming out of the job, if we dont return, a search is carried out by a dedicated emergency team (FAST), who can be anyone detailed by the incident commander. The emergency team has to be the size of the largest BA crew inside the building, carrying the same equipment.

Its all very in depth, and very restricted compared to how things are done in the USA, but unfortunately we still loose firefighters and have a lot of close calls, in London, on a weekly basis, it doesnt matter how many safeguards or procedures you put in place, you put man up against fire, in the same room, it aint gonna be pretty!! Fun though!! ;D

Upon arrival at a fire, the officer in charge will assess the situation, and detail two BA wearers to enter with the minimum of  a hose reel, to carry out any firefighting and search and rescue, these roles are carried out at the same time by the same crew, if they come across a casualty, they will dump the hosereel, and carry the casualty out, a second crew, if and when available will follow the hosereel to the branch and recommence where the first crew left off.

We dont to ventilation in the same way US depts do, we dont cut holes in roofs, basically the firefighting crew takes a beating until they put the fire out! ;D bit of an incentive really!!! :

Once the fire is out, we then ventilate by using ventilation fans, purging the building of smoke. Offensive ventilation using PPV is still in its early stages in this country, they did let us loose on it a few years ago, but it kinda went wrong!!! : It wasnt fireman proof!! ;D

Aerial appliances, (trucks) are only used for exactly that, high access, and rescues from upper floors where the 13.5m ladder cannot reach, usually above the 4th or 5th floor of a building. The aerials also have monitors on and act as water towers when needed.

I dont know who the guy ism but he has a great buff site on the LFB, here is the link for anyone interested;

http://www.lfbsite.com/

Click on the links across the top and there is a wealth of info about us, most of it i dont even know myself!!!

Regards

Jarrod

 

[grumpy grizzly]

Many thanks for the info and the  web site. It is always nice to get info from other departments. 

 

[Yff3110]

Jarrod what station in London do you work at?

 

[vbcapt]

Jarrod:

I noticed many of your firehouses are 2-story/multi-story buildings. Are slidepoles widely utilized in your firehouses?

 

[londonfireguy]

Jarrod what station in London do you work at?

I work in South London, i tend not to disclose exactly what station over the internet, you never know who might turn up!!!!

If you want any specific info, or are visiting and want to visit my station, PM me and i will be happy to accomodate.

Jarrod

Jarrod:

I noticed many of your firehouses are 2-story/multi-story buildings. Are slidepoles widely utilized in your firehouses?

yes all of our stations, bar maybe one or two have Poles, on some stations they are not used anymore due to them been old, too expensive too replace. The older hands on a watch tend to use the stairs, as sliding down a pole is just too much for them!! bless em'  :

Jarrod