London Fire Brigade’s Community Safety Cycle Team will be patrolling 26 of London’s 33 boroughs this summer to help reduce fires in the capital’s parks and open spaces.
Riding specially marked Fire and Rescue mountain bikes firefighters will identify potential arson sites, and other fire risks, such as abandoned vehicles, unsecured empty properties, overgrown hedges, and abandoned cylinders. These are then reported to the local council for removal.
As well as helping to prevent both accidental and deliberate fires by working with the Brigade’s partners, the cycle teams will increase the Brigade’s visibility in the community and pass on its fire safety messages to Londoners. The bikes will also allow firefighters to cover areas normally inaccessible to other Brigade vehicles.
Following an initial successful pilot project in Hounslow in 2007, the cycle scheme ran in 12 boroughs last year and has been extended again this summer.
There are eight cycle teams operating in boroughs in the North West, North East, South East and South West of the capital. Each team is made up of eight riders – two per watch – and will patrol their designated area in pairs.
The Brigade’s cycle teams will be covering the following areas until the end of September.
