London Fire Brigade
 |
|
| Operational area | |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| City | London |
| Address | Union Street, SE1 |
| Agency overview | |
| Established | 1865 |
| Employees | 5,992 |
| Annual budget | £389.2 million |
| Commissioner | Dany Cotton |
| Facilities and equipment | |
| Divisions | 5 |
| Stations | 102 |
| Engines | 157 |
| Trucks | 11 |
| Ladders | 11 |
| Rescues | 15 |
| USAR | 14 |
| Fireboats | 1 |
| Website | |
| Official website | |
The London Fire Brigade (LFB) is the statutory fire and rescue service for London. It was formed by the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act of 1865 under the leadership of superintendent Eyre Massey Shaw.
It is the second-largest of all the fire services in the United Kingdom, after the national Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and it is the fourth-largest in the world, after the Tokyo Fire Department, New York City Fire Department and Paris Fire Brigade, with 5,992 staff, including 5,096 operational firefighters and officers based at 102 fire stations.
Dany Cotton is the Commissioner for Fire and Emergency Planning, which includes the position of Chief Fire Officer; she replaced Ron Dobson who served as Commissioner from 2007 until the end of 2016. Statutory responsibility for the running of the brigade lies with the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority.
In 2013/14 the LFB handled 171,067 999 emergency calls. Of the calls it actually mobilised to, 20,934 were fires, including 10,992 that were of a serious nature, making it one of the busiest fire brigades in the world. In the same 12-month period, it received 3,172 hoax calls, the highest number of any UK fire service, but crews were mobilised to only 1,424 of them. In 2015/16 the LFB received 171,488 emergency calls.
As well as firefighting, the LFB also responds to road traffic collisions, floods, trapped-in-lift releases, and other incidents such as those involving hazardous materials or major transport accidents. It also conducts emergency planning and performs fire safety inspections and education. It does not provide an ambulance service as this function is performed by the London Ambulance Service as an independent NHS trust, although all LFB firefighters are trained in first aid and all of its fire engines carry first aid equipment, including basic resuscitators, meaning the LFB can be utilised as first responders. In 2016, under a new initiative with the London Ambulance Service (LAS), the LFB now responds to life-threatening emergencies (cardiac or respiratory arrest) along with LAS emergency ambulances, in an attempt to ease pressure off the ambulance service.
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Wikipedia