After a fight broke out in London, a guy was fatally stabbed.
Around 6.15 p.m. tonight, police were called to Reynolds Road in Hayes.
When police, personnel of the London Ambulance Service (LAS), and the London Air Ambulance (HEMS) arrived, they discovered a male who had sustained several stab wounds.
Sadly, despite receiving medical attention, the man passed away right there in the accident.
Officers said work is ongoing to trace his next of kin.
Police at the scene in Reynolds Road (Picture: UKNIP)
Latest London news
There have been no arrests.
A Met Police spokesperson said: ‘A crime scene is in place at the location and urgent enquiries are ongoing.
‘A Section 60 Order granting police additional stop and search powers has been authorised, surrounding the area from 19:45hrs on 18 May until 10:45hrs on 19 May 2023.’
Almost 60 firemen battled a sizable fire at a residential building in central London.
Photos from the residential building on Bartholomew Close, Barbican, showed flames shooting out of the window.
An ambulance was on the scene to treat a man who managed to flee the fire before the fire department arrived.
Also, the other residents of the building were evacuated.
To combat the blaze, which damaged portions of two apartments on the third and fourth floors of the building, eight fire engines were stationed nearby.
They were called there just before 4pm, with crews from Soho, East Greenwich, Lambeth and other surrounding areas of the city attending to help the efforts.
London Fire Brigade (LFB) urged people to avoid the streets surrounding the close.
Drones were used to get a sense of the scale of the incident.
Station Commander Steve Howlett, who was at the scene, said: ‘Firefighters worked incredibly hard to ensure everyone was accounted for and there were no remaining hot spots.
‘The brigade’s Drone Team were able to use drones to survey the incident from above and relay images of hard-to-reach areas to incident commanders.’
A statement from the fire service said: ‘Most of a four-roomed flat on the third floor of a residential building was damaged by fire.
‘Part of another flat on the fourth floor was also damaged by the blaze.
‘The brigade’s 999 Control Officers took more than 35 calls to the blaze.’
They added: ‘The cause of the fire is under investigation.’
It comes after a man was killed in a separate flat fire at the Golden Lane Estate in Barbican on Tuesday.
London Fire Brigade is “institutionally misogynist and racist”, according to a damning review of its culture.
A black firefighter had a noose put by his locker, while a female one received a video of a colleague exposing himself.
The independent review was established by the London Fire Commissioner after a trainee firefighter took his own life in August 2020.
Commissioner Andy Roe said there was no place for discrimination, harassment and bullying in the brigade.
“From today it will be completely clear to all staff what behaviour isn’t acceptable and what the consequences will be,” he added.
‘Grim reading’
The review, conducted by the former Chief Crown Prosecutor for north-west England, Nazir Afzal, concludes that unless the “toxic culture” is tackled then other firefighters will take their own lives.
It lists a number of instances of abuse and poor behaviour at almost all levels of London Fire Brigade (LFB), including:
Multiple cases of bullying “and the targeting of ethnic minorities and women” with some complaints not investigated
Women “sexually taunted”, including one who received video calls from a man exposing his genitalia
Men “huddled around a screen watching porn” at some fire stations
Talking to the BBC, Mr Afzal said the report made for “grim reading”.
“We’ve heard example after example about women who were harassed or sexually assaulted – constant sexual taunting to the point that I am now saying that the London Fire Brigade is institutionally misogynist,” Mr Afzal said.
“In addition to the misogyny, there is an enormous amount of racism. One black man had a noose put up above his locker, another Muslim officer had bacon rolled on his plate before he ate.
“Women told us they were told [by male firefighters]: ‘We want to get you out of here, we don’t want you to be a fire officer.’ It goes back to the whole fireman concept.
“I sat with a very senior female officerwho said to me, through tears, that whenever she goes through a dangerous incident, she’s always thinking: ‘Will the men have my back? Will the men around me protect me given how they have treated me back at the station?
“If they feel they can’t trust the men around them because of their behaviour or misbehaviour and worse, then they aren’t safe and neither are we.”
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES Image caption, The behaviour of some staff “left a clear trail of psychological harm”, the report found
The report also found that while there was often “considerable sensitivity” in the brigade around issues of race, there appeared to be “a worrying blind spot” concerning misogyny and sexism.
One firefighter told the review that she advised her female friends not to let male firefighters in the house to give safety advice because “they go through women’s drawers looking for underwear and sex toys”.
The review recommends firefighters now wear body-worn videos for home visits.
The behaviour of some brigade staff “left a clear trail of psychological harm”, the report said.
Mr Afzal said the racism, misogyny and bullying identified within the LFB were far more widespread.
Speaking to the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said he was approached by other fire brigades and organisations as he undertook the review.
“People telling me please, please come and have a look at my culture.
“I ask anyone who’s rushing to judgement on London Fire Brigade to look in the mirror and look at themselves because they will see similar things happening.
“Their staff need the same support and protection that London Fire Brigade need to provide to theirs.”
The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said in a statement the report confirmed concerns it had raised over many years.
Image caption, The review, written by Nazir Afzal, concludes that unless the “toxic culture” is tackled then other firefighters will take their lives
Gareth Cook, FBU’s regional organiser for London, said morale and engagement at LFB was low.
He said 40% said they were frustrated in their job with staff shortages, no leave availability and poor work-life balance.
He added: “We have raised concerns about many of the issues contained within this report historically and as a consequence we remain sceptical about the changes senior leaders will implement with regards to their own behaviours.”
LFB Commissioner Mr Roe told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he was “horrified” and “heartbroken” to read the report.
‘Change starts now’
Asked if he agreed with the review’s finding the organisation was institutionally misogynist and racist, he said: “I think when 2,000 of your staff have written that story you can’t deny any of it. I accept the report in full, I accept all the recommendations.
“There will be change and the change starts now.”
“From Monday we are putting externally into the hands of independent experts all of our complaint, harassment, bullying investigations,” he added.
Mr Roe said he hoped employees would have the confidence to raise concerns and the organisation would “take action against people who let the service down.”
Even seniority appears not to have insulated some women from abuse: former Commissioner Dany Cotton, who became the first woman to lead LFB, said she had received death threats following an anti-sexism campaign she was promoting.
Despite a series of failings, the review found most participants thought their workplace was “supportive and friendly”.
It also found examples of “good leadership” including people who “went out of their way to build inclusive environments and operate a zero-tolerance policy around discrimination” but described it as “uneven and patchy” across the brigade.
‘Watershed moment’
Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff felt they “must work twice as hard to be seen and heard”, the report said, adding that non-white staff were more likely to be disciplined and less likely to be promoted.
In one instance a Muslim firefighter was spoken to in an Indian accent by his colleagues and had a piece of bacon put in his sandwich.
When he transferred to another watch, his colleagues put a pork sausage in his pocket, the report said. He subsequently had a terrorism hotline sticker placed on his locker, but his complaints were dismissed. He eventually collapsed at work and was admitted to the hospital, and has since been diagnosed with PTSD and has had suicidal thoughts.
The Grenfell Tower fire was described as having a “seismic impact on the culture of LFB”, particularly on the mental health of staff.
North Kensington fire station, which is less than a mile from the tower, was “widely recognised as a supportive station with a strong and diverse culture”.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said the details of misogyny and racism were “abhorrent” and said the findings of Mr Afzal’s review “must be nothing short of a watershed moment for the London Fire Brigade.”
London’s fire service had its busiest day since World War Two dealing with several blazes in record-breaking temperatures on Tuesday, London Mayor Sadiq Khan has said.
The city was one of 15 areas around the UK to declare a major incident.
The fires started on a day which saw a record temperature of 40.3C in Coningsby, Lincolnshire.
The forecast is still warm but cooler on Wednesday but there are warnings in place for thunderstorms.
A yellow warning has been issued by the Met Office for heavy showers and thunderstorms which could bring disruption in eastern and south-east England this afternoon.
The weather is also continuing to affect transport. Network Rail said on Wednesday there were no direct trains between London and Scotland, due to damage to overhead electric lines on the West Coast mainline.
Mr Khan said London Fire Brigade (LFB) received 2,600 calls as it dealt with multiple wildfires across the capital.
In Wennington, east London, 100 firefighters tackled a blaze which destroyed several homes.
LFB said two rows of terraced houses, four other homes, 12 stables and five cars were destroyed by the blaze, while one firefighter at the scene described it as “absolute hell”.
Dramatic images from the scene showed smoke billowing from a number of buildings, some with their roofs collapsed, and extensive damage to the surrounding land.
Speaking to the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme, Mr Khan said there were more than a dozen fires at the same time.
He said: “Yesterday was the busiest day for the fire service in London since the Second World War.
“Normally we get 350 calls a day, on a busy day we can get up to 500 calls. Yesterday the fire service had more than 2,600 calls a day.”
The mayor has advised Londoners not to have BBQs in parks or private gardens due to concerns about the risk of grass setting alight.
He added: “The grass is like hay, which means its easier to catch fire, and once it catches fire it spreads incredibly fast like wildfires like you see in movies or like you see in California.”
Elsewhere in the UK, a number of homes were destroyed by fire in Norfolk, while major incidents were also declared in places including Leicestershire, Hertfordshire, Suffolk, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.
‘My house is completely gone’
Tim Stock, who alerted the fire brigade and whose own house was destroyed in the blaze in Wennington, told BBC Radio 5 Live he and his son had spotted the fire in his neighbour’s garden but, despite their best efforts with a hose and watering can, had been unable to stop it spreading.
“I reckon about 15-20 houses might be gone or uninhabitable,” he said.
“My house is completely gone, as is the next door neighbour’s and three or four other houses along that bit.”
Mark Hardingham, chair of the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), described “stretched” fire services across the UK dealing with an “unprecedented level of wildfires”.
He told the BBC: “I’ve been in the fire service for over 30 years now and yesterday was just about the busiest I’ve ever seen the fire and rescue service in that time.
“The images that we saw yesterday remind me of what I’ve seen in California, Australia and southern Europe in recent years, and not so much in the UK.”
Phil Garrigan, who leads the NFCC’s National Resilience group, said the UK must now consider what equipment it had to fight wildfires.
He said: “Most European countries where they have significant wildfires have planes or helicopters which would be utilised to collect or distribute water to areas where the fire is developing.
“The UK relies on third parties to provide that capability, and as we look towards the future its certainly something the UK government and fire rescue services need to consider.”
Heatwaves have become more frequent, more intense, and last longer because of human-induced climate change, and that hot, dry weather is likely to fuel wildfires.
The world has already warmed by about 1.1C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.
Met Office chief scientist Prof Stephen Belcher said Tuesday’s temperatures was striking due to the large record-breaking margin and the extensive area of the UK that experience the severe temperatures.
Speaking to the BBC, he said the UK needed to adapt to the high temperatures. But “aggressive emissions cuts” would very sharply reduce the frequency of extreme temperatures.
The high temperatures brought disruption to a number of public services on Tuesday.
Miriam Deakin, interim deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, said the heatwave had forced hospitals to scale back planned surgeries, while a spokesperson for the East of England Ambulance Service said the service had seen above-average calls and was expecting to see the impact of heat-related illness into the weekend.
About 8,000 properties in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and north-east England were left without power after the extreme temperatures caused equipment to overheat.
At least nine people are also known to have died since Saturday while swimming in lakes and rivers.
