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It always amuses me when a simple "emergency" results in bored emergency service workers attending said "emergency" in disproportionate numbers.

I was getting ready to leave the house this morning and the BBC London news bulletin had mentioned something about Kentish Town Road being closed where it diverges into Highgate Road, just near the Forum and the Bull and Gate pub.  For those not in the know. Kentish Town Road splits in two at this point, one branch going up Highgate Road towards Highgate, and the other branch going up Fortess Road towards Tufnell Park, which is the one I walk down in the morning on my way to the station.

The cause of the "emergency" was err, nothing.  Just before the Bull and Gate pub, where the road diverges, there is a row of nasty cafe/kebab shop things, with three floors of flats sitting on top of them.  One of these flats had all the windows open and a huge amount of water splashed about on the pavement outside.

There was no sign of fire or smoke anywhere, but all of the windows in the flats were open, and there were no scorch marks to indicate there had been a fire of any description.  Nobody in attendance looked remotely concerned, and there was lots of standing about by men in various uniforms.

In attendance were the following:

Two fire engines
Three fire vans
Two police cars
A police van
A police motorbike
At least ten firemen
Another car with someone slumped inside wearing a hi-vi jacket
Two coppers pretending to be busy herding the northbound traffic into Leyton Road

The police had put tape across the road to stop cars going up Highgate Road and Fortess Road, but traffic was allowed down both these roads into Kentish Town, suggesting that the "emergency" wasn't all that important, as a fire in that row of flats would have caused the entire road junction to be closed off.

I'd like to think that our brave lads had saved the day again, but I can't help thinking that they were all sat round the TV in the mess room, bored shitless when the call came in, giving them an excuse to do something and giving the police (whose station is in the road next to the building in question) an excuse to put tape up and play at traffic control.

Bless.

They have been watching too much CSI

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6478541.stm

Hmmm, even so it still seemed like they had way too many people attending that one.

I think the same thing has happened there that happened to my house in Kentish Town a few years ago.  The cable carrying the electricity from the main in the road into the house perished after years of not being maintained properly, causing a short circuit.  The flat downstairs had their computer catch fire and whilst it burnt out quite quickly, there was a lot of smoke damage to their flat.

EDF Energy came out and dug up the road outside our house, and as I walked past the flats in question it this evening I saw that the road had been dug up in front of that building too, where it hadn't been this morning.

My guess is that the same thing happened there.

yeah and while they were all there, there was probably some old lady getting mugged round the corner !

After my son did his training to be a fire fighter his first two night on station consisted of sitting about or attending the odd car fire. On his first real shout he attended a full blown house fire with flames ballooning out of all windows. He was not allowed to enter the building because he was not experienced enough but 3 of his colleagues battled their way in and rescued the family. The mother was literally thrown to my son and he was told to try to revive her. She had bitten off her lower lip and her clothes were smoldering. When he attempted chest compressions her chest litrally collapsed. She didn't make it but her children were saved. On another shout with more experience he entered the burning building and found the family trapped upstairs. The fire by this time had become so intense that they had to use their axes to smash an escape route through the roof and the whole family were saved. He has stopped relating his stories now because it worries his mum. But they do spend a lot of time on station waiting around drinking tea and training and maintaining their equipment so that occasionally the can be hero's.
PS I do pull his leg about the tea drinking bit