The London Fire Brigade (LFB) is the fire and rescue service for London, the capital of the United Kingdom. It was formed by the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act 1865 (28 & 29 Vict. c. 90), under the leadership of superintendent Eyre Massey Shaw. It has 5,992staff, including 5,096 operational firefighters and officers based at 102 fire stations (plus one river station).
The LFB is led by the Commissioner for Fire and Emergency Planning, a position currently held by Jonathan Smith. The brigade and Commissioner are overseen by the Greater London Authority, which in 2018 took over these responsibilities from the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA).
In the 2015–16 financial year, the LFB received 171,488 emergency calls. These consisted of 20,773 fires, 48,696 false alarms of fire and 30,066 other calls for service. As well as firefighting, the LFB also responds to road traffic collisions, floods, shut-in-lift releases, and other incidents such as those involving hazardous materials or major transport accidents. It also conducts emergency planning and performs fire safety inspections and education. It does not provide an emergency medical service as this function is performed by the London Ambulance Service, an independent organisation, although all LFB firefighters are trained in first aid and all of its fire engines carry first aid equipment. Since 2016, the LFB has provided first aid for some life-threatening medical emergencies (e.g., cardiac arrest and respiratory arrest).
History
Following a multitude of ad-hoc firefighting arrangements and the Great Fire of London, various insurance companies established firefighting units to tackle fires that occurred in buildings that their respective companies insured. As demands grew on the primitive firefighting units they began to coordinate and co-operate with each other until, on 1 January 1833, the London Fire Engine Establishment was formed under the leadership of James Braidwood, who had founded the first professional, municipal fire brigade in Edinburgh. He introduced a uniform that, for the first time, included personal protection from the hazards of firefighting. With 80 firefighters and 13 fire stations, the unit was still a private enterprise, funded by the insurance companies and as such was responsible mainly for saving material goods from fire.
Several large fires, most notably at the Palace of Westminster in 1834 and the 1861 Tooley Street fire (in which Braidwood died in action, aged 61),Tooley Street Fire spurred the insurance companies to lobby the British government to provide the brigade at public expense and management. After due consideration, the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act 1865 (28 & 29 Vict. c. 90) was passed, creating the Metropolitan Fire Brigade under the leadership of Eyre Massey Shaw, a former head of police and fire services in Belfast. In 1904 it was renamed as the London Fire Brigade. Photographs of some of the early firefighters are held in the collections of the LFB Museum, rediscovered in 2026. The LFB moved into a new headquarters built by Higgs and HillGeneral introduction', Survey of London: volume 26: Lambeth: Southern area (1956), pp. 1–17. Date accessed: 27 March 2010. on the Albert Embankment in Lambeth in 1937, where it remained until 2007.
During the Second World War the country's brigades were amalgamated into a single National Fire Service. The separate London Fire Brigade for the County of London was re-established in 1948. With the formation of Greater London in 1965, this absorbed most of the Middlesex Fire Brigade, the borough brigades for West Ham, East Ham and Croydon and parts of the Essex, Hertfordshire, Surrey and Kent brigades.
In 1986 the Greater London Council (GLC) was disbanded and a new statutory authority, the London Fire and Civil Defence Authority (LFCDA), was formed to take responsibility for the LFB. The LFCDA was replaced in 2000 by the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. At the same time, the Greater London Authority (GLA) was established to administer the LFEPA and coordinate emergency planning for London. Consisting of the Mayor of London and other elected members, the GLA also takes responsibility for the Metropolitan Police Service, Transport for London and other functions.
In 2007, the LFB vacated its Lambeth headquarters and moved to a site in Union Street, Southwark. In the same year, the Department for Communities and Local Government announced that LFB Commissioner Ken Knight had been appointed as the first Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser to the government.Communities and Local Government News Release 099, 24 May 2007, New Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser Appointed Knight was succeeded as Commissioner at that time by Ron Dobson, who served for almost ten years. Dany Cotton took over in 2017, becoming the brigade's first female commissioner.
In December 2022, the brigade was put into special measures with an enhanced level of monitoring after an independent review highlighted incidents of misogyny and racism.
Commissioners and chief officers As of 1 June 2025, Jonathan Smith is the commissioner of the LFB. He succeeds Andy Roe, who succeeded Dany Cotton, who in 2017 had become the first woman to hold the top role; Cotton resigned in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire after 32 years' service in the brigade. Prior to Cotton, Ron Dobson was the commissioner and he had served in the LFB since 1979; he was appointed CBE for his distinguished contribution to the fire service.
Organisation
Historically, the London Fire Brigade was organised into two divisions, Northern and Southern, divided in most places by the River Thames and each commanded by a divisional officer. Both divisions were divided into three districts, each under a superintendent with his headquarters at a "superintendent station". The superintendent stations themselves were commanded by district officers, with the other stations under station officers.London Fire Brigade, The London Fire Brigade: Information for Intending Candidates, December 1938.
On the creation of the Greater London Council in 1965, the brigade was enlarged and took over almost all of the Middlesex Fire Brigade, part of west Kent, North Surrey, south Hertfordshire, and South West Essex, together with the small County Borough brigades of Croydon, East Ham and West Ham.
The internal LFB organisation consists of three directorates that all report to the commissioner. They are:
Operations; Safety and Assurance; and Finance and Contractual Services.
The LFB's headquarters since 2007 is located in Union Street in Southwark, adjacent to the brigade's former training centre, which was both the original headquarters of the Massey Shaw fire brigade and his home, Winchester House, as well as the London Fire Brigade Museum. The brigade was previously headquartered in Lambeth between 1937 and 2007.
Performance Every fire and rescue service in England and Wales is periodically subjected to a statutory inspection by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS, colloquially known as “Himickfurrs”). The inspections investigate how well the service performs in each of three areas. On a scale of outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate, London Fire Brigade was rated as follows: + HMICFRS Inspection London Area Rating 2018–2019 Rating 2021–2022 Description Effectiveness Requires improvement Requires improvement How effective is the fire and rescue service at keeping people safe and secure from fire and other risks? Efficiency Requires improvement Requires improvement How efficient is the fire and rescue service at keeping people safe and secure from fire and other risks? People Requires improvement Requires improvement How well does the fire and rescue service look after its people?
Legislative powers Fire and rescue authorities in England come under the government department formerly known as the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM). This department was responsible for legislation covering fire authorities; however, in 2006, a structural change to central government led to the creation of the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), and subsequently the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). It is now responsible for fire and resilience in England, including London.
The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 changed many working practices; it was brought in to replace the Fire Services Act 1947 and repealed several existing acts, many going back fifty years. The full list of acts repealed can be found here:
The 2004 Act was drafted in response to the Independent Review of the Fire Service, often referred to as the Bain Report, after its author Professor Sir George Bain. It recommended radical changes to many working procedures and led to a national firefighter strike in 2002–2003.
Further changes to the legislative, organisational and structural fabric of the brigade, which could include varying the attendance time, the location of frontline appliances and number of personnel, plus mandatory performance targets, priorities and objectives are set by the MHCLG in the form of a document called the Fire and Rescue Service National Framework. The framework is set annually by the government and applies to all brigades in England. Responsibility for the rest of the UK fire service is devolved to the various parliaments and assemblies. On country-wide issues, the Chief Fire Officers Association provides the collective voice on fire, rescue and resilience issues. Membership is made up from senior officers above the rank of Assistant Chief Officer, to Chief Fire Officer (or the new title of Brigade Manager).
Staffing
Rank structure
London Fire Brigade, along with many UK fire and rescue services, adopted a change in rank structure in 2006. The traditional ranks were replaced with new titles descriptive of the job function.
On 17 October 2019, London Fire Brigade announced a return to the traditional rank titles, in a policy named "Role to Rank". The rank structure of the Brigade is now as follows:
Title Commissioner Deputy Commissioner Assistant Commissioner Deputy Assistant Commissioner Group Commander Station Commander Station Officer Sub-Officer Leading Firefighter Firefighter Insignia
Recruitment and training In the last 24 months, the LFB have run three firefighter recruitment campaigns; however, in previous years they have seen fewer or even none. There are many factors why they would run a recruitment drive, as there is actually no set recruitment drive for firefighters. Professional firefighter training usually takes place at various London venues. On successful completion, the newly qualified firefighter is posted to a fire station to work on a shift pattern currently two day shifts (ten and half hours), followed by two night shifts (thirteen and half hours), followed by four days off. Working patterns were the subject of scrutiny in Professor Bain's Independent Review of the Fire Service.
After training school, firefighters serve a one-year period of probation; qualification and full pay are not reached until the candidate completes a development folder which usually takes around 12–18 months. Ongoing training both theoretical and practical continues throughout the firefighter's career.
Shift pattern In December 2010 the LFB and Fire Brigades Union (FBU) agreed on a new shift pattern for front-line firefighters: two 10½-hour day shifts then two 13½-hour night shifts followed by four days off.
The agreement followed two 8-hour daytime strikes by the FBU in protest at the LFB's intention to change the shift pattern from two 9-hour day shifts then two 15-hour night shifts followed by three days off, to two 12-hour day shifts then two 12-hour night shifts followed by four days off.