Storm Eunice sparked London Fire Brigade’s busiest day in 20 years

The number of 999 calls related to Storm Eunice made Friday one of London Fire Brigade’s busiest days in two decades.

In total, Control Officers took 1,958 calls on February 18 – making it the busiest February day since 2000 and the second busiest day in that time for calls related to strong winds.

A total of 550 of those calls were taken in just two and a half hours – prompting the Brigade to declare a major incident to allow it to focus resources.

The strong winds prompted hundreds of calls to fallen trees, items in precarious positions and collapses of walls and chimneys.

Sadly, one woman died after a tree fell and crushed her car in Hornsey and a man was injured by falling fencing and hoarding in Waterloo.

New data reveals that Friday was in the top 10 for the Brigade since 2000 – ranking eighth for the highest number of calls.

The busiest day since then was the 20th July 2007, when the UK suffered summer flooding and the rescue efforts were described as the biggest in peacetime Britain at the time.

The busiest days are detailed below, with the reasons for the high volume of calls beside them.

Date	Calls received	Reason
20/07/2007	2,639	London-wide flooding
27/10/2002	2,438	Severe gales across London and South East
12/07/2021	2,198	London-wide flooding
23/06/2016	2,167	London-wide flooding
17/07/2005	2,152	Significant number of outdoor/grass fires with multiple calls
25/07/2021	2,113	London-wide flooding
30/10/2000	2,051	Strong winds and flooding – 60mm rain fell in under an hour
18/02/2022	1,958	Storm Eunice
07/08/2002	1,870	London-wide flooding
09/08/2011	1,829	London riots

The Brigade introduced batch mobilisation on Friday, meaning calls where there was a risk to life were prioritised and crews attended other calls as non-emergencies when they could. It’s introduced so all the Brigade’s resources aren’t tied up dealing with a spate of non-emergency calls in one area.

This plan was well rehearsed during two separate days last year when there was significant flooding across London. Assistant Commissioner for Operational Resilience and Control, Jonathan Smith, said a lot of learning from those incidents was implemented last week.

“The fact we had executed this type of response so recently was one of the reasons we were able to handle Friday so well,” he said.

“These types of occurrences, where we are taking such a high volume of calls, happened twice last year so having that learning allows us to manage such incidents effectively and efficiently.”

In the past on exceptionally busy days the Brigade would look to fire and rescue service colleagues in border counties for support, but as they were all dealing with the impact of Storm Eunice as well, this wasn’t an option on Friday. In fact, the Brigade’s Control Officers were also assisting border services with their 999 calls.

Assistant Commissioner Smith added: “All our Control Room staff were absolutely outstanding on Friday.

“London’s unprecedented red weather warning for wind prompted an incredibly high volume of calls and some staff who were off duty came in to assist their colleagues and they met the challenge with calm professionalism.

“They reassured callers and mobilised crews to where there was an emergency or immediate risk to life, while logging other calls for firefighters to attend when they were clear of more urgent incidents.

Photo: Firefighters clear debris in Old Kent Road on Friday