Westfield Stratford City to launch new safety hub

September 16, 2022

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 September 9^th – Emergency Services Day. London Fire Commissioner Andy Roe will officially open the centre on the day.

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.

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