On Sept. 2, 2002, London firefighters rescued seven people from a fire at a four-story hostel on Montagu Place, Marylebone. Eight engines and two turntable ladders attended the fire, with crews using six jets and two ladder monitors to extinguish the flames.
At 7:19 p.m., the fire brigade's control room at Lambeth received the first of 23 telephone calls about the fire, and ``a few minutes later firefighters from Manchester Square and Paddington fire stations arrived at the scene to find people calling for help from a number of the upper floor windows and the roof,'' according to a fire brigade press release.
``They quickly raised their ladders and rescued one man, two women and a child, all suffering from smoke inhalation from a second floor window and one man from the roof who was uninjured,'' the press release said. ``Two other men escaped from the premises before the brigade arrived, one from the basement and another who jumped from a first floor window. Two other people were assisted from the building by breathing apparatus crews.''
Divisional Officer Lee Phillpotts, incident commander, said: ``All the firefighters who attended this incident worked very hard to fight what was a very severe fire. The first crews to arrive in particular did an excellent job as they were confronted by a number of people in great distress at windows and the roof of the building, and an already well developed fire below them.''
