West End Letters: Fire | Dean Street

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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 17 July 2009

Is our fire ‘insurance’ for the West End sufficient?

• THE fire in Dean Street raises the issue of whether one station with three appliances and 10 men is adequate for the West End.
Readers may remember the furore over the closure of the Manchester Square station and this incident, sadly, appears to demonstrate the folly of that closure.
Fire stations are like insurance policies. Do we have adequate cover for the crowded West End of London?
David Bieda
Dean Street,
Soho

Adequate…

• I WAS disturbed, but not surprised, at your report concerning the Dean Street fire (Fire station was left ‘unmanned’, July 17).
It seems to me to be unfair to blame the fire brigade when the Soho fire station was left unmanned.
The number of fire engines available in central London has been considerably reduced following the closure of the Manchester Square station in 2005 and the firefighters still do a splendid job with the facilities they are left with.
It is, of course, very sad that historical buildings are damaged when there is a fire but the nature of 18th century buildings is such that they go up like tinder – putting fire alarms all over the place is no substitute for the fast availability of fire engines.
Sir Ken Knight, former head of the London Fire Brigade, is on public record saying that the fire service in central London has gone from “excellent” to “adequate”.
It remains to be seen what “adequate” means in practice.
Gloria May
Address supplied, W1

Questions

• I HAVE been contacted by constituents who have expressed concerns regarding the response by the London Fire Brigade to the fire at Dean Street on July 10.
Local people have been particularly disturbed by a report indicating that the fire station in Shaftesbury Avenue was unmanned when the fire broke out, with all three fire engines and 10 firefighters attending another fire.
It has also been suggested that the computer system which calls in a standby engine from the nearest available station had been overridden, hence the delay in engines being called in from Euston and Knightsbridge.
I have asked London fire commissioner Ron Dobson for his comments on these issues.
Murad Qureshi
London Assembly member

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld.
Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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