Call the Fire Brigade!: Fighting London's Fires in the '70s
Allan Grice
Aug 2012 · Random House
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About this ebook
Working as a fireman in London’s East End during the early 1970s was no easy ride. In the years before workplace health-and-safety legislation had started to exert its grip, Allan Grice had to cut his fire-and-rescue teeth without the advantages of a breathing apparatus for each member of his crew. Back then, the time-tested strategy was to ‘get in’ – to crawl below the intense heat and ‘eat’ the thick smoke – in order to locate a missing child or to halt a rapidly spreading inferno.
In Call the Fire Brigade!, Grice recounts his most memorable experiences as a front-line member of the London Fire Brigade working the city’s East End, with its myriad commercial premises, brooding Thames-side warehouses, seedy tenements and colourful cosmopolitan community, ranging from prosperous manufacturers to down-and-out winos with their body-warming bonfires in derelict houses.
Fires in factories, tenements and warehouses, and non-fire emergencies such as the Moorgate Tube disaster of 1975, are graphically described, while the elation of rescue, the sadness of being too late to save lives and the warm camaraderie of fire crews during some of the capital’s busiest peacetime years are vividly depicted.
In Call the Fire Brigade!, Grice recounts his most memorable experiences as a front-line member of the London Fire Brigade working the city’s East End, with its myriad commercial premises, brooding Thames-side warehouses, seedy tenements and colourful cosmopolitan community, ranging from prosperous manufacturers to down-and-out winos with their body-warming bonfires in derelict houses.
Fires in factories, tenements and warehouses, and non-fire emergencies such as the Moorgate Tube disaster of 1975, are graphically described, while the elation of rescue, the sadness of being too late to save lives and the warm camaraderie of fire crews during some of the capital’s busiest peacetime years are vividly depicted.
Ratings and reviews
4.4
5 reviews
Carolyn Richards
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July 8, 2023
This is exactly how firefighting was conducted during my 37 year career. In those days breathing apparatus was seldom used as it was imperative to quickly get water on the fire. The author gives you an inspirational look into exactly how firemen in those days courageously performed their tasks. A must read for anyone who is considering a career as a firefighter. To all those still serving , be safe and learn something every shift.
About the author
Allan Grice's career in the fire service spanned more than 30 years, most of which was spent in the highest fire risk districts. Upon retirement, he formed an independent fire safety advisory consultancy and has been a visiting lecturer on fire, rescue and fire law enforcement at Leeds University since 1997. He is the author of two other fire-related books.
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