HOME FRONT CASUALTIES

According to website Rescue 1: "The wartime casualties to the fire service during raid firefighting in England and Wales amounted to roughly 700 fireman and 20 firewomen killed in action and 6,000 seriously injured. In one raid alone, 91 firemen died and several hundred were injured protecting London."

COVENT GARDEN - 1954

Photos: Institution of Fire Engineers

Firefighters from London's old Clerkenwell fire station paid dearly in life and flesh at a warehouse blaze at Covent Garden on May 11, 1954.

The five-story building, constructed of steel frame and brick with wooden floors, suffered  structural failure, according to the Institution of Fire Engineers.

The alarm was received at 3 p.m.

"While fighting a fire in a warehouse containing fruit and vegetables, adjacent to Covent Garden, London, Station Officer Fred Hawkins and Fireman A E J Batt-Rawden, both of Clerkenwell Fire Station, lost their lives,'' according to Fire magazine.

"Sub Officer Sidney Peen, Leading Fireman Ernest Datlin, Fireman Kenneth Aylward, Fireman Charles Gadd, Fireman Frederick Parr and Fireman Daniel Stocking were all sent to hospital. Three of the injured required plastic surgery treatment.''

Covent Garden was a hub for fruit and vegetable businesses, staring with a small open-air market in 1654, according to Wikipedia.

On Dec. 21, 1949, fire broke out in stacks of Christmas trees stored in catacombs beneath a Covent Garden market, claiming a fireman's life.

BARBICAN - 1902

On April 21, 1902, fire erupted at MacQueen's hat factory in the Barbican and wind-whipped flames gutted adjacent buildings. "Three hundred firemen and 40 fire engines were engaged,'' The New York Times said. "Owing to the danger that Aldergate Street Station might catch fire, traffic on the Metropolitan Railway was temporarily suspended. The guests of the Manchester Hotel, adjacent to the Aldergate Street station, hurriedly left.'' Chief Fire Officer Wells directed the firefighting. Two firemen were injured.

MOORGATE TUBE - 1908

"The most serious fire which has as yet taken place in the network of the tube railways under London broke out recently about 25 yds. from the Moorgate st. station of the City & South London railway," the magazine Fire Engineering reported in 1908.

"Contrary to the inactive proceedings of our Interborough company, either on its subway or elevated lines, managers were at once dispatched along the line; the trains were stopped and the passengers sent to the surface.

"The electric current was at once cut off, so that no live wires or rails handicapped the firemen (wearing) smoke-helmets. Even with these on, they could not enter at Moorgate, the flame and smoke being so severe, and engines and men were dispatched to the stations at the Bank and Old street.

"The firemen soon had the blaze under control. There was a big crowd at Moorgate street station awaiting transportation: but no panic ensued and all the expectant passengers were taken up to the street by the elevators."

LAMBETH TURNOUT

Photo: LFB Twitter

Fire crews turn out from London Fire Brigade's old headquarters at Lambeth along the Thames, circa 1930.