Jewish security leaders praised London Fire Brigade for its response to the spate of antisemitic arson attacks across the city this year, while warning that the attacks exposed a broader security crisis facing British Jews.
On Tuesday, the London Assembly Fire Committee met to discuss LFB's response to the antisemitic arson attacks that occurred between March and May 2026, including the burning of Hatzolah ambulances.
Present were Community Security Trust CEO Mark Gardner, Hatzolah NW's Yanky David, London Fire Commissioner Jonathan Smith, and two LFB commissioners.
Gardner spoke of how the "randomness" of the attacks had originally confused the police, who sought advice from CST on what connected the different synagogues and Jewish sites.
“The only thing that connects them is that they're Jewish or, as was said by the group, the so-called group responsible for the attacks, that they're Zionist. That's the only thing," he said.
In part because of the breadth of targets - from Jewish businesses to ambulances to reform synagogues - “it felt to the entire Jewish community that everybody was at risk of attack," Gardner told the Assembly.
Concern about attacks becoming normalized
He added that he was concerned about attacks becoming normalized and the community being on edge.
He also expressed concern that, after the attacks became less frequent and then paused entirely, “the awareness of police, of fire brigade, of the assembly members, of government, etc., that they basically relax about the situation.”
Nevertheless, praised the LFB for its "terrific" response to the attacks, and described the efforts as "vitally important."
Just last weekend, LFB carried out an emergency response demonstration at Finchley Fire Station to show the Committee and Jewish leaders how it would respond to a future terrorist attack.
LFB borough commander Rob Davis said this run-through was important given the changing face of attacks, and stressed that firefighters should be able to enter potential incidents "knowing from start to finish what the protocols and steps look like."
Visitors were shown the LFB's marauding terrorist attack response capability, which was introduced following the Manchester Arena attack in 2017, and were also shown measures that could be put in place at Jewish community buildings to help them prepare.
David cited this in Tuesday's assembly, saying "the amount of resources that the London Fire Brigade had brought forward to that event to make it as realistic as possible and to prepare us, God forbid, for an eventuality that may happen was phenomenal. And we felt the support, and we felt as an organization that we had partners."
David recalled being one of the first people to attend the burning ambulances when it was initially a small fire.
"The fire brigade who attended, they literally dove straight in and started tackling it, and they were phenomenal. We had to evacuate elderly residents from the neighboring apartment blocks, and we just worked alongside each other on that night phenomenally."
Nevertheless, David acknowledged that the incidents were “traumatic" for the community and it lost four of its frontline ambulances.
“For an ambulance to be attacked, it's almost as if someone is ripping out the defibrillators from every public building in London," David said.
Gardner said that the existing Jewish security measures would be regarded as quite extreme to anyone outside the community, but within the Jewish community, "there's a horrible normality around them."
"We can't keep building bigger walls. It just can't continue like that," he said, adding that it will continue to get worse until Jews either leave or the underlying reasons for the hatred are addressed."
'I've never quite seen operational pressure like it'
Jonathan Smith, London Fire Commissioner, said listening to the praise from Gardner and David for the London Fire Brigade "is something I'm incredibly proud of.”
“When what can at times appear to be the rest of the world is against a particular community, I think our role as the London Fire Brigade as the emergency service to step into that space and provide that level of reassurance is incredibly important," he said.
Smith, however, spoke of the operational pressure the organization has been under this year.
"And in 27 years as a firefighter and officer, I've never quite seen operational pressure like it."
Smith said the London Fire Brigade will need direct funding from central government to support its national security role.
That aside, Smith said in terms of the actual response to the attacks that we saw at the start of the year, "I couldn't be prouder of what the London Fire Brigade has done.”