Telegraph e-paper

London firefighters accused of racist and sexist bullying

By Will Bolton

THE London Fire Brigade is institutionally misogynist and racist, according to a damning report.

The independent review was established by the London Fire Commissioner after a 21-year-old trainee firefighter, Jaden Francois-esprit, took his own life in August 2020.

The author of the report, Nazir Afzal, a former chief crown prosecutor for the North West, said he heard “accounts of shockingly poor behaviour and painful experiences over many years”.

Mr Afzal and his team gathered testimony from over 2,000 current and former staff and the public, including members of the Grenfell community.

The review found a catalogue of “abhorrent experiences” including a black firefighter who had a noose put by his locker and a woman who received a video of a colleague exposing himself.

Andy Roe, the London Fire Commissioner, described the findings of the report as “sobering”. He said: “There is no place for discrimination, harassment and bullying in the brigade and from today it will be completely clear to all staff what behaviour isn’t acceptable and what the consequences will be.”

The review found there were multiple cases of bullying “and the targeting of ethnic minorities and women” with some complaints not investigated.

There were stories of women being groped in training exercises and having to run a daily gauntlet of sexist abuse.

The review also refers to a Muslim firefighter, bullied because of his faith, who had bacon put in his sandwich.

A female firefighter told the review that the threshold for bullying was so high “you would have to gouge someone’s eyes out to get sacked”.

She said that she tells her female friends not to let male firefighters into their homes to check smoke alarms because she claims they go through women’s drawers looking for underwear and sex toys.

News

en-gb

2022-11-26T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-11-26T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://dailytelegraph.pressreader.com/article/281689733822968

Daily Telegraph