Visitors to one of the busiest shopping centres in Europe will soon be able to leave with free fire safety advice as well as their purchases.
Westfield Stratford City has temporarily donated the use of a retail unit to London Fire Brigade to become the Newham Safety Centre – a hub for shoppers and visitors to the centre to get free information from London’s emergency services partners.
The Brigade has joined together with Westfield and Newham Council to launch the venture on 23 September.
The unit will be open for a month and will act as a drop-in centre for visitors to learn more about fire safety as well as get information from the council, the Metropolitan Police Service and the London Ambulance Service (LAS).
Station Commander at Stratford Fire Station, Chris Kendall, has worked closely with partners to bring the concept together. He said: “We very rarely get the opportunity to do something like this and are very grateful to Westfield Stratford City for donating the space to us.
“The shopping centre sees hundreds of thousands of visitors each week, so it’s a fantastic opportunity for us and our partners to speak to members of our community we may not otherwise come into contact with.
“We really want our communities to see the face of London Fire Brigade and it will be great for people to be able to walk in and have a chat with firefighters and learn about what we do. We will also give them advice on how to improve fire safety at their home or work.
“Newham is one of London’s most diverse boroughs and working together with our communities, we are aiming to increase awareness of fire safety and ultimately, reduce fires. We are also supporting our partners to help residents with any other issues or concerns they may have.”
Each day, visitors will be able to get free fire safety advice, find out more about recruitment, sign up to book a Home Fire Safety Visit or complete our online Home Fire Safety Checker tool.
In addition, throughout the month, there will be the chance to meet some other teams from within the Brigade, including the Education Team, the Drone Team, the Fire Cadets and our Fire Investigation dogs. A full schedule of specific events and opening times will be released nearer to the launch.
Other services on offer at set times include the community resuscitation trainers from LAS, who will show the public how to perform CPR and use a defibrillator when someone suffers a cardiac arrest.
Everyone who is trained will have the opportunity to be signed up as a “London Lifesaver” – people who know how to save a life and – crucially – have the confidence to save someone in cardiac arrest. The service’s hazardous area response team (HART) and public education team will also be on-hand to offer safety advice.
Representatives from Newham Council will be on site to speak to residents on a range of topics, such as reporting fly tipping concerns, council tax or parking issues.
Newham Borough Commander, Richard Arnold, said: “The work Chris and all partners have done to bring this opportunity together has been fantastic.
“As the Borough Commander, I am very proud of our commitment to work with key partners in keeping the community and visitors of Newham safe.
“We’re really looking forward to welcoming visitors into our unit, so please do stop in and say hello if you’re at Westfield.”
Westfield Stratford City’s General Manager, Alyson Hodkinson, said: “We have a very strong relationship with the London Fire Brigade and work closely together throughout the year. However I’m really proud of the teams coming together to launch the pop up Newham Safety Centre to our customers.
“Not only will it be educational and informative, members of the public will have the chance to meet the interesting teams behind one of our most important public services as well as some of my personal favourite team members – the Fire Investigation dogs.”
Head of First Responders at LAS, Samantha Palfreyman Jones, said: ““For Emergency Services Day, I’m proud to celebrate all the incredible work of our community resuscitation trainers and London Lifesavers.
“They play a critical role in helping to save the lives of Londoners – particularly in the moments before an ambulance crew arrive where every second counts during a cardiac arrest.
“Alongside our HART and public education teams, they’ll teach members of the public on how to stay safe and look out for one another in an emergency.”