‘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”.