London Firefighter

Product Information

The latest book from author and retired firefighter David Pike, I Was a London Firefighter, is an anthology of factual narratives and fictional tales loosely based around the personal experiences of individual members of the London Fire Brigade. Pike, himself a retired firefighter, has cleverly selected material that delivers both a comprehensive history of the London Fire Brigade and a fascinating portrait of individual firemen and women, at work and (occasionally) at play.

Blue flashing lights and bright headlamps cleared what little traffic there was on the road that time of night. Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde Islands, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Cook Islands, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, European Union, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Gabon Republic, Gambia, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Morocco, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Niue, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Republic of Croatia, Republic of the Congo, Reunion, Romania, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts-Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Swaziland, Sweden, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vatican City State, Venezuela, Virgin Islands (U. It’s known as the book that launched a thousand careers because a lot of people – a bit older than me – had read it and decided to join. It was US Firefighters raising funds for British Firefighters in World War Two which saw the establishment of the Fire Services National Benevolent Fund (now Firefighters Charity.To this day, I look back on this and as each year passes, I shudder in embarrassment and shock at my stupidity.

Feeling more confident, I now approached the fire and again held up my ID and said “bombero” to a group of police officers standing on the pavement. This is a book that needed to be written, as the further we get from these events and recollections of the heroics of ordinary people performing extraordinary feats in the most testing of circumstances, the more likely it is that they will be forgotten altogether. I was only just inside the wide mall area and by getting low on the floor I could see the legs of the Spanish officer in front of me.To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. The facts are that the Grenfell Tower fire was all but extinguished when he arrived and the scene was relatively safe when he made his first entry. When I was about 12 I started going to the big library in Mile End to look at picture books full of them. One was setting the vehicle up as the control point whilst the leading firefighter collected the nominal roll boards from each of the fire engines. Seller has stated it will dispatch the item within 1 working day upon receipt of cleared payment - opens in a new window or tab .

A talented organiser he was involved in delivering some of the London Fire Brigade’s most high-profile public events during the 1990s including royal visits and the unveiling of the national Blitz memorial by St Paul’s Cathedral. There is a compelling emotional focus; he lost so many people he was close to, including his inspirational mother.

Steve is a regular contributor to a number of International Fire Service publications and was the editor of the British Fire Service Association magazine 'The Journal'. Awarded the Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct as a young fireman, he rose steadily through the ranks during his thirty-plus years' service within the LFB. This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations.

Another view from the street outside during a lull in firefighting when the water tanker was being refilled. He is best for his contribution to Fire Service articles relating to Fire Service Command, Fire Service Tactics especially around Firefighting in high rise buildings.

I can identify with many of the incidents and issues although my career timeline was parallel with Steve’s, which was spent in fire service in the South West of the UK. How elated do you feel to rescue survivors, to reunite families, and how devastating is it to recover the bodies of those who you didn’t reach in time? Others would be brought to them until the major control unit arrived and took over but until then the BACV crew had its work cut out.