In 31 years on the job, London Fire Brigade (LFB) station commander Alex Strand has fought some of the capital’s worst blazes since World War Two.
This searingly hot summer has been his busiest ever. The veteran firefighter has regularly scrambled from his central London base to battle wildfires raging in the capital’s outer boroughs.
But last month, he was mobilised to a wildfire with a difference: the flames sweeping down a country park in Rainham, east London, were just yards from his family home.
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‘My family have never been so close to a fire’
