Photo: The Matchbox ClubModel of London Fire Brigade horse drawn engine
October 28, 2009
October 22, 2009
DUNKIRK - 1940
Fireboat Massey Shaw at sea
At the start of World War II, the London fireboat Massey Shaw performed heroically as a member of the fleet of "Little Ships" that evacuated British soliders from Dunkirk in France.
Navy sailors and London firemen worked side by side to rescue members of the British Expeditionary Force defeated by the German Army.
According to the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships:
"The fires of Dunkirk gave them enough light to work by and the thick blanket of smoke provided some cover from air attack. But the shelling from German guns was relentless. The two Naval officers set a splendid example of calm and the beach party rowed ashore, fixing a line to maintain contact with the fire-float. After four or five journeys, the Massey Shaw was full once more with troops pressed together in the cabin and standing shoulder-to-shoulder on deck. Her load of nearly l00 men was transferred to a troopship at anchor in the channel and she returned to be re-loaded.
"After some engine trouble that the naval stokers who were unused to the Massey Shaw's machinery, eventually managed to overcome, stretcher cases began to arrive and these were hard to handle and transfer to the troopship. They made about five journeys from the beach to a paddle steamer and it was estimated that they embarked 500 men in this way. As dawn broke, the troopship was full and left for England. Massey Shaw returned to the beach and started loading again. At this point, on a falling tide, they began to bump on the sands and were in danger of damaging their propellers but, with their engines throbbing at full power, they just managed to get back into deep water. At 0330 they were the last boat to leave that part of the beach. Halfway across the channel, the Naval skipper began to have doubts about the compass, but then, to his relief, came across a drifter towing two small boats packed with troops. They followed them into Ramsgate where they arrived at 0800 on Sunday 2nd June, landing 30 or 40 more soldiers.
"The Massey Shaw returned to Dunkirk again the next evening with a Fire Service crew. This time they went to the jetty of Dunkirk harbour. It was difficult for soldiers to board her from the towering jetty and she came away empty. After returning to Ramsgate, she was ordered back to London. Off Margate, the Emile Deschamps, a French ship which had sailed to England from Dunkirk laden with troops the previous night, was passing her at a distance of 200 yards when it struck a mine and sank almost immediately. The Massey Shaw picked up 40 men, all severely injured and took them back to Ramsgate. Early on Wednesday 5th, she finally returned to London and as she came up the river she was cheered as she passed each fire station."
HOLLAND PARK TUBE - 1958
1958 fire damage
On July 28, 1958, a fire broke out aboard a Central line underground train carriage between Shepherd's Bush and Holland Park station in west London, claiming the life of one person and injuring many others.
Electrical arcing produced a torch-like flame, which blistered and melted the paint.
"A great volume of dense smoke and acrid fumes was produced which filled the train and the tunnel," according to the official inquiry.
"The train stopped 23 yards short of Holland Park station," the inquiry said. "The driver promptly operated the tunnel telephone wires which cut off the traction current and stopped the arcing."
"Nearly all the passengers suffered from the effects of the smoke and fumes, and 48 of them and three railway servants were sent to hospital for treatment," the inquiry said.
A BBC report said the train carriages were about 20 years old.
A similar incident occurred Aug. 12, 1960 on a train between Redbridge and Gants Hill, without fatalities.
October 21, 2009
BLITZ DUTY
Photo: Historical Footsteps Tours of LondonScript of BBC Broadcast from Sept. 7, 1940
The German air force has unleashed a wave of heavy bombing raids on London, killing hundreds of civilians and injuring many more.
The Ministry of Home Security said the scale of the attacks was the largest the Germans had yet attempted.
"Our defences have actively engaged the enemy at all points," said a communiqué issued this evening.
"The civil defence services are responding admirably to all calls that are being made upon them."
The first raids came towards the end of the afternoon, and were concentrated on the densely populated East End, along the river by London's docks.
About 300 bombers attacked the city for over an hour and a half. The entire docklands area seemed to be ablaze as hundreds of fires lit up the sky.
Once darkness fell, the fires could be seen more than 10 miles away, and it is believed that the light guided a second wave of German bombers which began coming over at about 2030 BST (1930 GMT).
The night bombing lasted over eight hours, shaking the city with the deafening noise of hundreds of bombs falling so close together there was hardly a pause between them.
One bomb exploded on a crowded air raid shelter in an East London district.
In what was described as "a million to one chance", the bomb fell directly on the 3ft (90cm) by 1ft (30cm) ventilation shaft - the only vulnerable place in a strongly-protected underground shelter which could accommodate over 1,000 people.
About 14 people are believed to have been killed and 40 injured, including children.
Civil defence workers worked through the night, often in the face of heavy bombing, to take people out of the range of fire and find them temporary shelter and food.
An official paid tribute to staff at one London hospital which was hit, saying, "They showed marvellous bravery, keeping on until bomb detonations and gunfire made it absolutely impossible."
In the air, a series of ferocious dogfights developed as the German aircraft flew up the Thames Estuary.
The Air Ministry says at least 15 enemy aircraft crashed into the estuary, and in all, the Ministry said, 88 German aircraft were shot down, against 22 RAF planes lost.
TELEPRINTER
Photos: delta23lfb via Flickr Images of a London fire station teleprinter and a message calling additional fire crews - with "BA" or breathing appartus - to a major incident at King George V Dock in East London on Dec. 29, 1974. The "royal dock" was built in 1912 and closed in the 1980s. Today, it's part of "The Docklands."
October 02, 2009
OXFORD STREET
Photo: Soho Fire Station web siteAerial ladders in operation at 10-pump fire on Oxford Street, London.
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