‘Thankfully no hipsters were injured’: fire brigade apologises over tweet
The fire in the Great Eastern Street building. Photograph: Twitter
The London Fire Brigade has apologised after announcing “no hipsters were injured”, following a fire at a pop-up restaurant in Shoreditch.
Six fire engines and 35 firefighters were called after a blaze broke out in the Great Eastern Street building early Sunday morning.
Around half of the building, where street food pop-up Dinerama is based, was damaged in the blaze.
After firefighters battled to bring the fire under control the London Fire Brigade tweeted:
#Shoreditch restaurant blaze early this morning. Thankfully no hipsters were injured http://t.co/LszKAKTpbz pic.twitter.com/6cZPoYZRat
— London Fire Brigade (@LondonFire) July 19, 2015
Following the message Twitter users rushed to criticise the brigade, saying the joke was “in bad taste” when traders had lost their livelihoods Jonathan Downey, partner in Dinerama, tweeted:
Given that several small businesses were destroyed last night, is this the official line of @LondonFire? https://t.co/5pSLw0Xuuj — Jonathan Downey (@DowneyJD) July 19, 2015
Another user Jay Mooney wrote:
@LondonFire pretty poor taste, this tweet. People’s livelihoods affected here.
— Jay Mooney (@Jayem80) July 19, 2015
Following the criticism the LFB apologised, saying it was “sorry if we caused any offence by using the term hipsters.” But others supported the brigade’s joke, saying the tweet was merely “making light of a bad situation”.
And they say Germans don’t have humour…
Quite Andreas Quite!
Humourless bunch.
Do they really imagine the Fire Brigade aren’t aware of the seriousness of fire? Firefighters risk their lives to put the fire out and then make a joke, and a bunch of numpties on twitter who have probably never saved a life nor risked their own for anybody else have the barefaced cheek to object? Can they really not see what fools they are?
Massive respect to the Fire Brigade for their work AND for their jokes 🙂
If the fire had been in another area, say Old Compton Street, and the firefighters reported “no faggots were burned”, would we still be considered humourless if we complained about that?
Well said Billy.
Also comparing the word ‘faggot’ with ‘hipster’ is just plain silly.
Colluding in negative group stereotypes and actively making people feel unwelcome in our community should never be encouraged, in my view.
This is funny. Top humour from the brigade 🙂
Mmmm….but ‘Hipster’ is not an offensive word, nor is it a disparaging negative…whereas ‘faggot’ is.
Silly comparison.
Big up to the brave Fire Service – putting their lives on the line for us regularly.
The word “faggot”, meaning a bundle of sticks, has a history of referring to the burning of heretics at the stake.
Firefighters aren’t the only people with a sense of humour.
Meanwhile, here’s a headline from The Independent (18 Sept 2014) “HIPSTER HATE IS EVERYWHERE”. It then opens with the line, “Once you start noticing hipster hate, it’s everywhere.”