Boris Johnson today praised the "heroism" of fire crews who battled to extinguish blazes during the London riots.
The Mayor paid tribute to the firefighters as he visited Stoke Newington fire station in
north-east London.
Mr Johnson also described the actions of those rioters who had prevented firefighters from reaching burning buildings earlier this week as "demented".
Staff from the station were some of the first members of the emergency crews on the scene of the riots in Tottenham at the weekend.
Mr Johnson told the firefighters that they did a "fantastic job" and said he hoped anyone who had hampered the rescue effort had a "huge sense of guilt and shame".
He called it "incomprehensible" that rioters had thrown missiles at fire crews.
London Fire Brigade received 2,220 calls - about 15 times the usual amount - on Monday night, and attended 1,500 incidents. It proved to be its busiest night in recent history.
The resources of London's firefighters were stretched to breaking point by large blazes that caused tens of millions of pounds damage.
Rioters attacked at least three fire engine crews as they tried to tackle some of the incidents.
