The London Fire Brigade was stretched to breaking point during the recent riots, the Fire Brigades Union said today.
The union statement contradicted a claim by the chair of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, Brian Coleman, that other Brigades were not needed.
“The Brigade did not have enough fire engines, and other Brigades came in to deal with incidents in Enfield and other places. The control room was overwhelmed with the number of calls, and did not have enough staff to deal with them all” said FBU London Region executive member Ian Leahair.
“Mr Coleman wants to reduce London’s firefighters, fire engines and fire stations, so he has to pretend we had enough to cope with our busiest few days in recent history. But we did not. The London Fire Brigade was stretched to breaking point” said Mr Leahair.
