Benjamin Wagner, 32, was jolted awake by the first blast. For a moment, he thought he was back in Israel and that the noise had been a missile. His father, who lives on the other side of the Hatzola ambulance site, was already on the phone to police.
“I pulled on my clothes over my pyjamas and headed out,” said Wagner, whose first name has been changed to protect his identity.
Outside, the air was thick with the smell of petrol and burning rubber. Realising how close the explosion had been, he went straight to a nearby block of flats housing elderly residents to help with the evacuation.
“We brought them to Pai House [a nearby community centre] around the corner,” he said. “Every few minutes, we kept hearing more explosions.”
Wagner was among the dozens who helped on Monday morning, sacrificing a night of sleep to get residents out of their homes and provide whatever assistance they could.
When he returned home after 4am, he reeked of smoke.
Miraculously, no one was injured in the attack, which is being investigated by counter-terrorism police.
Four ambulances belonging to Hatzola, in the heart of Golders Green, north London, were destroyed, along with the windows of flats and the shul where the vehicles had been parked. CCTV footage showed three people in hoods pouring accelerant on the vehicles before setting them on fire and fleeing. No arrests have yet been made.
Across Golders Green, there is a sense of relief at how close the incident came. “It could have been so much worse,” said a 75-year-old resident, while his daughter added: “We will get through this as a community.”
At the centre of the response were the same community groups that had been targeted.
Kevin Cuddon, clinical lead at Hatzola Northwest London, said the charity helped evacuate 34 flats in a neighbouring building. Some residents were taken to Pai House, while others stayed with relatives in the area.
Hatzola has approximately 300 volunteers across London, with 69 in the north-west group, which covers Golders Green, Hendon and Finchley and fields 20-22 calls a day from Jewish and non-Jewish people.
The charity has been loaned four London ambulances, but Cuddon said some were concerned that other vehicles could yet be targeted.
"People are scared with our cars near their houses,” he said, noting that while there has never been an attack of this scale against Hatzola, ambulances have previously been defaced with swastikas. The Community Security Trust (CST) is understood to have increased security around the ambulance locations.
The burnt wreckage of Hatzola ambulances (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)Getty Images
Shomrim volunteer Ben said the Orthodox Jewish security charity was first on the scene, after another volunteer driving along Golders Green Road saw the flames and called for reinforcements and the fire brigade.
“We were here straight away,” Ben said, referring to the Shomrim. “We secured the area and told the community what was going on, to offer reassurance and make sure there was no speculation.”
The first blast “sounded like a missile exploding”, said another Shomrim volunteer who was also on the scene within minutes.
Another Shomrim spokesperson who did not wish to be named said 80-90 people assisted with evacuations.
“Babies, the elderly, everyone was led out of the buildings,” he said. Some residents who had slept through the initial blasts had their doors forced open by firefighters.
Ben’s family, including three children aged four, six and eight, was evacuated from a nearby block.
While he said he was not scared, the Shomrim volunteer described a heightened sense of threat. “We feel that anything can happen at any point. It is fight or flight, and I am more of a fighter.”
He added that greater government support for Shomrim would be welcome, “that would be a breath of fresh air”.
The organisation relies on volunteers with full-time jobs who are prepared to respond at any time. “Everyone is on duty all the time,” another volunteer said, referring to members who are office workers, lawyers and florists. “People drop everything.”
Later that morning, speaking to the JC outside local bakery, Coco, the volunteer was repeatedly approached by residents offering information relating to the case.
“There are maybe 30 police officers here, yet people come over to talk to us. We know people and they know us,” he said.
Shomrim volunteers Steven and Ben[Missing Credit]
Steven, another volunteer, added: “People want to speak to those who speak their language.”
That’s one reason why charity’s messaging channel, which connects some 18,000 people, is so essential.
Ben said messages were sent out rapidly to provide clear information. “People needed to know it wasn’t bombs or missiles. We wanted to give facts and reassurance,” he said.
A few streets away, Debbie Paster was woken during the night by her 19-year-old daughter banging on her door. She said her daughter told her: “‘Mummy, there are bombs falling on Golders Green and it’s on fire. I think we need to get in the car and run.’
“At first I didn’t know what she was talking about,” Paster recalled. “It was the middle of the night… Then we looked out the window and saw smoke billowing and started to understand what was going on.”
The family had recently returned from Jerusalem, where they had experienced a blast near the Old City, but Paster said: “I felt safer there than I do here.”
Her 14-year-old daughter was reluctant to go to school on Monday. “She said, if they can do that, then they can come into our school. We have drills for intruders, but she said if there was one, which there probably will be one day, we just wouldn’t be safe. You can’t make a school safe from an intruder.”
But despite the heightened fear, hours after dropping her daughter at school, Paster was on Golders Green Road handing out tea, coffee and pastries with the Ezra youth movement.
“It's the right thing to do. We're a community – we are just good people that want to live and breathe.
“We are a strong community, with our charities and our youth groups and our security procedures, but it’s wrong that we have to have them. We should be safe,” she said.
“I grew up in a London that was safe for Jews. We went to synagogues and youth groups, and there was never such a thing as security… Everyone was kind to each other. Now it is the norm to know that outside every event and every centre, you have to have security. That is not normal,” Paster said.
Miriam Landau was also helping to organise food and drink. Firefighters paused for tea or slices of pizza donated by a nearby restaurant, Slice.
“They are going to be using our shul premises as a place to daven,” she said – the shul next to the blast sight has been badly affected with smashed windows.
“It is just a whole community reaching out to one another,” she said. “It was automatic. Let’s do something.”
Shimon Ryde[Missing Credit]
Local councillor Shimon Ryde heard the explosions from his home and went straight out. He was helping escort residents out of flats opposite when another blast erupted nearby.
“It nearly lifted me off my feet,” he said. “If that had been a bomb, I would not have been standing there.”
By Monday afternoon, Ryde had still not slept, having spent the night assisting with evacuations and the morning helping to coordinate the attack’s local aftermath.
Elsewhere, local businesses were open as usual. Deborah Miller, whose shop Bitz of Glitz is close to the blast site, said the incident would not deter her from selling Judaica.
“Our shop is very obviously and proudly Jewish, but [the attack] is not going to stop me. We have to be able to live here,” she said.
Chaim Kesselman, who works at a local kosher supermarket, said the Community Security Trust (CST) had visited the shop in recent months to offer advice. He called for a more consistent police presence in the area.
“Once something like this happens, then they start sending the police. There should really be more in the area before,” he said.
Yitz, 82, who has lived in Golders Green for 42 years, said he woke up at around 3.30am and saw messages about the attack in a local WhatsApp group. His first reaction was: “Oh no, they’ve started in London too.
“In previous times, attacks have been some way away from me. This time it felt too close to comfort.
“Of all the things to target, why pick something like this, which serves non-Jews as well?” Yitz, who has had to call a Hatzola ambulance in the past, added.
Ezra youth movement offered free drinks and food outside Bitz of Glitz[Missing Credit]
Hatzola has encouraged the community to continue using its emergency number as normal.
Laurance Blitz, chair of trustees for Hatzola UK, said the attack had been intended to intimidate but would not succeed.
“Pouring petrol over ambulances and setting them alight was designed to terrify us. They will fail. Hatzola is operational 24/7. Our shuls are full, our schools are open, our restaurants and cafes are busy. We will not be cowed.”
He thanked emergency services and partner organisations, including the London Ambulance Service and St John Ambulance, for offering support and replacement vehicles.
“The community can continue to count on us,” he said. “We have no time to grieve. If you need us, we remain mobilised. Our phone lines are open. Our volunteers are ready to respond to call-outs.”
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