LONDON firefighters embraced each other and wept last
Thursday at 10 fire stations, including the oldest in Britain, closed for the
last time due to cuts pushed through by London Mayor Boris Johnson to make £45
million worth of savings.
The closures went ahead in the face of active and bitter opposition
from the elected fire authority, the Fire Brigades Union and local residents.
There are fears that the closures will endanger the public;
along with the closure of the stations 552 firefighter jobs are being lost and
14 engines.
Clerkenwell station, which is 140 years old, closed after
Green Watch attended their final call: a blaze at block of flats in Regents
Park near King’s Cross station.
Firemen and women left, in civilian clothes, saying they had
been told by their bosses they could not wear their uniforms.
Alex Baddock, who has worked at the station for 29 years
cried as he left the building. “This is a sad, sad day. Boris Johnson doesn't
know what he's doing,” he said.
Artemis Kassi, 42, a local mother who was there with her
six-year-old daughter Maryam, has been campaigning to save the 107-year-old
station.
She told the Evening
Standard: “I am angry, appalled and, frankly, disgusted, that it has come
to this. We are here to show our support, thanks and recognition to the
firefighters who have served our community so well."
Paul Embery, London regional secretary of the Fire Brigades
Union (FBU), said: “Boris Johnson will have blood on his hands. It will be only
a matter of time before someone dies because a fire engine did not get to them
in time.
"These stations have protected generations of Londoners,
and they are as necessary now as they ever were."
Belsize, Bow, Downham, Kingsland, Knightsbridge, Silvertown, Southwark,
and Woolwich stations also closed.
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