By Julia Gregory FIREFIGHTERS are getting in a lather as they prepare for a sponsored car wash to raise cash for a memorial to people killed in the Bethnal Green tube disaster. The fire crew from the Red watch at Bethnal Green station will be washing ca

By Julia Gregory

FIREFIGHTERS are getting in a lather as they prepare for a sponsored car wash to raise cash for a memorial to people killed in the Bethnal Green tube disaster.

The fire crew from the Red watch at Bethnal Green station will be washing cars at the forecourt of the station in Roman Road from 10am to 4pm on Saturday June 6 for a fiver a car.

They will split the proceeds between the Stairway to Heaven Memorial Fund and the Firefighters Charity.

And thry will also be on hand to give out fire safety advice and arrange smoke alarm checks.

Firefighter Steve Hoare who has organised the event with his colleague Pavinder Singh said: "We were at the memorial service to the people killed in the Bethnal Green tube disaster and it is a good cause. Wartime firefighters from Bethnal Green would have been on the scene at the time. It was a terrible disaster."

Survivors of the disaster are campaigning to raise money for a memorial to the 173 people who were killed in the crush in the air raid shelter at Bethnal Green on May 3 1943.

They hope to erect the memorial in Bethnal Green Gardens just behind the station entrance at the junction of Roman Road and Cambridge Heath Road - a stone's throw from the present fire station.

A further 90 people were injured in the crush which is thought to have started when someone slipped.

The station could accommodate up to 7,000 people taking shelter from the Blitz and 500 people had already gathered there on the night of the disaster.