London Fire Brigade - sights of the 80's and 90's

[BentleyRotary]

8.09 Twin radiator Dennis PE SLW 179. The sister to this machine SLW 178 was a Pump at Whitechapel in 1958! There is a photo in the Old Manual of Firemanship 2 Pumps and Appliances of it at the Smithfield Meat market fire in January 1958. It shows 3 firemen using a Radial Branch to knock down loose masonary. My Dad was the guy in the middle of the trio all from Whitechapel. I later served at A21 Paddington as a Sub O.

[crexcrex71]

@BentleyRotary There is an excellent copy of the photo you speak of in Neil Wallington's book In Case of Fire.

The appliance shown in the photo is a Dennis F101 SLW179 which was based at Clerkenwell at the time. I was stationed at Clerkenwell in the sixties and often drove it. At around 6.22 in the video is ET OXT779. A Merryweather ET it was also based at Clerkenwell in the sixties and I often drove it to shouts all over London

[SECAmbCFR]

@crexcrex71 ......OXT779 is preserved and running - check-out PaddingtonFire on YouTube.

[s10m0t10n]

There were some hideous machines in there. ERFs were the worst appliance the LFB ever put into service - fibreglass cabs, awful gearing and a steering wheel to one side of the driving position. Not far behind them were Dodges which rolled like hell because their centre of gravity was too high; they wouldn't stop reliably, either. the Shelvoke machines were the best of the early bunch but not a patch on the later Volvo appliances. Oh, the memories...

[MagaHarry17]

fantastic video. they had intresting appliances back then lol

[jacobmasta]

@ 3:20 whoops!

[djessex25]

0:13 WAS A FIRE @ A PAPER FACTORY

A13 BARKING..i remember it i was riding past on mybike !! how sad lol