London Fire Brigade is the largest fire fighting service in UK and the third-largest in the world –after the Tokyo Fire Department and New York City Fire Department. It covers an area of 1,577 kilometers square and has a population of approximately 7.8 million.
The service performs variety of tasks which includes firefighting, rescuing people trapped in enclosed spaces or collapsed buildings, attending to road traffics, road accidents, and other hazardous materials. Aside from those, the service as well conducts community safety seminars particularly in fire prevention measures and fire risks reduction; emergency planning; emergency responses; and regulatory measures in case other options fail. They are also working with other business partners to ensure a best quality service to the public.
There are 112 operational fire stations strategically installed all over the area to ensure efficient and quick response. They employed 7,000 staff including 5,800 operational firefighters and they are headed by Chief Fire Officer Rob Dobson, who is officially Commissioner for Fire and Emergency Planning, and by Deputy Chief Fire Officer Gary Dobson.
In years 2008-2009, there were 229,308 emergency/accident calls the service had received. There were 29.215 fire calls of which 13, 841 were serious. In the same period, the got 6,022 prank calls but they only mobilized 2,653. Indeed, LFB is the busiest fire service in UK.
London Fire Brigade is in the responsibility of London Fire and Emergency Planning.
