London FB Soho Video

[Noddy]

Nice Video this.  Stumbled across it and was impressed.  Gives aspiring FF’s a bit of a flavour of life at Soho 

[E119]

It is quite a good video, I watched it when it was first streamed on Facebook.

LFB have released a few good videos recently, the ones I've seen have been virtual station tours at a few different stations showing around the station, facilities, pumps and specialist appliances.

[LondonMB]

Is it just me or is the one talking at 2:48 wearing a Sub-Officer helmet but a Watch Manager marking on his tunic? Any reasons as to why this might be?

[JonnyHolbs]

Fairly standard practice when ‘acting up’: basically assuming the rank above you for experience prior to actually getting promoted. In this instance, the FF in question is acting up to Station Officer from Sub Officer.

[Aspire]

When acting up, you wear you substantive helmet but acting rank on chest.

That SubO goes out to other stations acting up to StnO a lot so probably never changes the patch back to substantive rank.

[LondonMB]

Makes sense, thanks.

[Luminoki]

Yeah ive noticed these popping up on my youtube suggestions, fascinating looking at the rabbit warren stations like Tooting and Euston ( although i wish we had a garden at my station )

[Noddy]

What got me was the size of sohos patch! It’s tiny! (Appreciate that theres probably more going on in that small area than most small towns however!) 

[Aspire]

Funny thing is, it was smaller before Westminster, Knightsbridge and Clerkenwell closed in 2014 and it took on a piece of all 3 grounds.

[Messyshaw]

@Aspire Don't forget it took a chunk of Man Sq before that too, so the ground has probably doubled in size.

@Noddy I think the thing that sets this ground apart isn't the crazy amount of entertainment premises or necessarily the listed or well known buildings, its the sheer size of buildings that are landlocked or interlinked 

When Fire Certificates were required- they only applied to a single premises. But in some parts of the west end, large terrace buildings have some floors projected under or over floors in what looks like a neighbouring building. 

Sometimes several terraced premises had to be treated as one massive property even though it straddled 3 or 4 streets.

It was a pain to administer with an unusable plan as it was too big. But an.even bigger pain to get a job in.

The video was a bit dull for perhaps the best ground in the LFB by a country mile.

I was fortunate enough to set up a 4 pump exercise with them just before lockdown in a very important building with sevetal huge complex basement levels. They were very good and their Guvnor was spectacular 

 

[Aspire]

1 hour ago, Messyshaw said:

@Aspire Don't forget it took a chunk of Man Sq before that too, so the ground has probably doubled in size.

I was awaiting one of the ‘elder statesmen’ to mention Man Sq as it was before my time so only mentioned the closures I saw.

1 hour ago, Messyshaw said:

I was fortunate enough to set up a 4 pump exercise with them just before lockdown in a very important building with sevetal huge complex basement levels. They were very good and their Guvnor was spectacular 

Is this building on the old Westminster ground as I remember a complex set of basements like no other in one of them?

[Steve]

We all laughed at "The mighty 'ho" and used to take the p1ss because of their T-shirts, chin up's from the TL with the bay doors open, and their AFA resetting fingers.

But when I became a senior officer, particularly the last 10 or so years, firstly as an ILO dealing with the Gov't security zone (mostly Soho's since 2014) and then as a DO, where I'd actually often be second nearest from Shoreditch where my Borough HQ was, I picked up quite a few jobs on their ground and (although I knew the street's intimately as a Taxi Driver) I had no real appreciation for how the tightly interwoven buildings had often been joined and extended in all sorts of weird and wonderful (and potentially dangerous) ways, as @Messyshawsaid. On top of that you had all of the department stores, hundreds of them... all of the Government buildings, mentioned above but also difficult in terms of fires due to their labyrinthian construction and security. More deep underground multi-line stations that anyone else, embassies, palaces, 20+ room terraced houses, it really is endlessly unique.

Once I grew up and had a taste of ops on their ground, some of which, had this old 'East End' warhorse reaching for his worry beads, I gained a new found respect and truly believe there is not a fire station in the Country that has such a broad range of intricate, nationally important, World heritage, gutter ridden, Dickensian, overcrowded, diverse risks. I'd argue it holds up well on an International level as well but we don't know enough about how many particular fire stations cover what elsewhere in the World. 

It is still a genuinely busy 'in and out' all day/night station, unlike some of my own beloved past residences that are now much quieter. And with the reduced number of surrounding stations and pumps, Soho's crews are genuinely picking up proper work as the pump especially, can be anywhere from the top of Euston, into the City, out to Kensington or down in the mean SE London street's of the Elephant and Castle as an immediate take pump. I wish I'd have spent some time there earlier in my career on a watch, mind you in those days, the waiting list was as long as Shaftesbury Avenue itself. But today, if I were a Ff to StnO,  with so many one pumpers around it, I'd sell my old Mum to be on a watch there. 

[Noddy]

Yes I agree I don’t think there’s a Station ground quite like it. 

[Messyshaw]

A small example of A24 Soho's complex buildings - Mayfair.   Where a simple smell of smoke can be a nightmare!!!

[IWFL89]

I noticed an MDT in the rear cab of this appliance on the video, is this a standard feature in all LFB appliances and is it a full working console same as in the front? My previous brigade mentioned this on new appliances but it never materialised. Personally I think it's a great idea as it gives crews a chance to check routes and SSRI's etc on the way to an incident.

[JonnyHolbs]

Yes, it’s standard across all pumping appliances.

It has the same basic functionality, but without the GPS feature, so you can’t see the location of other trucks like you can in the front. We can check things like hydrant locations, routes, ePIPs (electronic Premises Information Plates), entries into the ORD (Operational Risk Database) like building plans, locations of hoarders, O2 cylinders and tactical plans.

We’ve also just gone live with the FSG (Fire Survival Guidance) app, which links us directly to control for Fire Survival Guidance calls. It allows us to see all info for live FSG calls, and update control on whether crews have been committed, the FSG call is complete, property empty etc.

[IWFL89]

Thanks for the info, sounds like a decent setup. The brigade I'm at now has ordered some new appliances but it's very unlikely they'll add anything useful to them.