The Lieutenancy has a long history of working with the emergency services, and this was the first meeting with Lambeth’s new Borough Commander, Terry Gooding at Clapham Fire Station.
In 2020 the London Fire Brigade launched their Togetherness Strategy, which aims to celebrate diversity and strive for inclusion in their organisation. Terry talked of how they are working to drive diversity in their organisation and how they are reaching out to different communities to increase representation from all areas in the capital.
The visit was also a chance to checkout one of their new aerial appliances, this was one of eight 32m turntable ladders which along with three 64m. These can deliver water from height onto a fire, as an observation platform, providing lighting and if needed rescue people from height.
The 32m ladder can reach up to 10 floors, 64m up to 20, these new additions to the fleet across London will help London Fire Brigade respond to emergencies with the right equipment needed as quickly as possible
Amazing views of Clapham and beyond on a really clear day. Thankfully there was no wind and you can imagine how high the 64m version will be.
A really useful visit and along with hearing about their future plans there was history too. Below is the original fire station on this site and prior to that, there was a smaller station whose building is still there, built-in 1868.
Christopher Wellbelove DL 