UK Fire Service History

Early Days of Firefighting
There was no organised fire fighting until Roman times (The Greeks fought fires with whatever resources were available, but no special equipment or organised manpower were used).
Early attempts by the Romans to create an organised fire brigade were not that successful as they consisted of slaves who- for obvious reasons- were not that enthusiastic in carrying out the dangerous task of fire fighting.
For several hundred years the situation continued- the authorities threatening to raise taxes if the citizens continued to harass them for a proper fire brigade.
A disastrous fire in AD6 destroyed nearly a quarter of Rome and caused such an outcry that Emperor Augustus organised a fire brigade himself. He formed the first highly trained fire brigade called the "Corps of Vigiles". This group was very successful and so lasted 500 years!!! The collapse of the Roman Empire also saw the end of the first organised fire brigade.

Early Britain
In Great Britain, until the invasions of Angles, Saxons and Jutes, the villages of the day did not worry too much about fire risk. The houses were built of primitive materials (easily rebuilt) and were not too close together for fire to spread.
King Alfred's soldiers were packed into fortified areas and as towns developed from this they became fire traps- houses of combustible materials were built dangerously close together. These conditions remained for several hundred years with several towns and cities being affected by serious fires until the first Great Fire of London in 1212. This fire killed 3000 people before burning itself out.
Certain fire precautions were put in place in other towns and cities after this fire, but not a lot of effort was put into organised fighting of fires. It was going to take another disaster for the situation to change, and this was Saturday 1st September 1666 and was the second Great Fire of London. This fire started in a bakers shop in Pudding Lane, at 2am. The fire raged for three days and left 200000 people homeless along with the devastation of over 12000 houses.
The people involved in rebuilding the city vowed that such great loss should never occur again. One of the leaders of the rebuild was Dr Nicholas Barbon who charged "Insurance" premiums on property in order to spread the cost of fire loss over a larger number of people. The authorities also made some precautionary measures by dividing the city into quarters and equipping each area with a quantity of fire fighting equipment. Insurance Brigades continued for many years, but this did not stretch very far out of London. Plates would be fixed to insured buildings so that firemen would know which brigade should deal with the fire.
The earliest "fire engine" record dates back to 1612, but it was not until 1721 that a pump was designed with an air vessel on the delivery side of the pump that allowed a clean, continuous jet of water. Many communities had manual pumps but manning them was a problem. Into the 1700's Parliament was still laying responsibility for fire fighting with the church authorities.
hree Insurance Companies in 1791 provided joint patrols of the streets of London, and at the end of the 18th Century the threat of French invasion saw groups of Englishmen form defence organisations. As they had little to do most of the time, their duties also included fire fighting and continued after Napoleons defeat.

Organised at Last!
The first large authority to establish a proper fire brigade was Edinburgh in 1824. They purchased a large amount of equipment and recruited eighty firemen. A man named James Braidwood was given the job of Master of the Fire Engines.
At his first major fire the fireground became confused, as Braidwoods orders were not reaching the men due to various "Gentlemen" also giving orders (as was customary at the time). Intense and organised training of his men followed and the communications improved so his men now obeyed no one else!
1829 saw the introduction of the first steam fire engine, built by John Braithwaite of London. The limited success of this invention meant that by 1833 production had ceased. In 1832 several insurance brigades amalgamated and recruited James Braidwood as head of the London Fire Engine Establishment. As in Edinburgh, Braidwood ran a disciplined group of men and improved methods of fire fighting in the city. James Braidwood died whilst fighting a fire in 1861.
Due to the rising costs of manpower in the mid 19th Century, interest in steam appliances was revitalised. In Britain in 1858 Shand, Mason and Co produced a steam machine.
Around 1860 fire fighting arrangements in Britain were complicated. There were brigades manned by the Police, Insurance Brigades and Volunteer Brigades. "Country House" brigades were also set up due to the length of time it would take other brigades to arrive at the property. After Braidwoods death in 1861, a Police Fire Brigade was formed under the control of the Metropolitan Board of Works- Captain Eyre Massey Shaw was chosen to take charge of this brigade, and was appointed Chief Officer when the brigade went public in 1866. Shaw operated a very efficient service and significantly increased the number of stations and manpower.
Communications were also improving by the 1900's with the introduction of the telephone systems although this took a while to be generally available. Many local authority brigades were formed by this time but no standards for hydrants and other equipment was established which was to cause problems later.
Also by this time the self-propelled steamer was being revived and the "combustion engine" was also making an appearance powering fire engines. After the turn of the century developments of equipment and appliances continued and brigades were becoming more organised.

The World Wars
The First World War saw a shortage of manpower in brigades as reservists (many who were firemen) were called up. The reservists were returned to fire fighting duties after fires caused by the German bombing raids almost overwhelmed the brigades.
The co-operation between brigades was now being encouraged after a few "over the border" problems and the whole of the country was divided into areas to overcome this problem. Full co-operation was not established, however, until after the 1918 Armistice.
One problem that became apparent during World War I was that of non-standardisation. Hydrants, stand pipes and hose couplings were a problem when different brigades were working together.
Fire appliance development progressed rapidly between the wars, the main improvement being the size of turntable ladders and the introduction of "closed" cabs for the crew. In the lead up to World War II, minimum fire fighting requirements were set out by Government for all of the country whilst the situation in Germany was monitored.
The International situation meant that by April 1938 the Auxiliary Fire Service had over 20000 pumps available and 30000 firemen had been recruited. In the early days of the second World War a slight amount of friction developed between the AFS and regular fire fighters, but the main problem was still that of equipment incompatibility. This was overcome in the short term by the manufacture of adapters for different size hose couplings etc. The AFS really proved their worth as the blitz intensified and the opinions people had of them in the early days were completely turned around.
On 22nd May 1941 the National Fire Service was formed to unify the whole of the country and eliminate any operational problems. At this time the treasury also ordered 2000 Austin K2 Towing Vehicles ("ATVs"). With the ending of the war on 8th May 1945, the NFS was gradually disbanded, and in its final months converted as many hydrants as possible to be standard sluice valve types and tried to standardise equipment.
On 1st April 1948 the fire brigades reverted back to local authority control.

Post War to Present
Post War saw work by the Home Office to include categorising cover needed from A to F with a specified number of machines to be available and times taken to arrive (the "Risk" category that is still used today).
Whilst many town and city brigades were being equipped with the latest fire appliances, rural areas had to make do with a towing tender equipped with a hose reel pump- some old ATV's were converted for this purpose. The Dennis F7 of 1949 was the forerunner of todays modern appliance and was soon replaced by the F12.
1955 saw an even better engine introduced, the Maudsley Marquis. This had a 7.7 litre diesel engine and better conditions for the crew. Only six of the original model were made, it was superseded in 1957 by an improved model.
With a fire in 1956 at a mill in Keighley, legislation was passed to cover fire safety at work. Whilst fire services in the UK were gaining improved equipment and appliances approaching the 1960's, they were always having to keep apace with risks imposed by new technology in other fields and the hazards they posed.
Brigades experimented in the 1960's with various liveries on appliances due to the number of nighttime accidents, but reverted back to red on Home Office instruction.
Fears of atomic warfare receded and in 1968 the "Green Goddess" appliances of the AFS in the early fifties were put in storage, but have been used on several occasions since.
In April 1974 large County brigades were formed- losing the old City and County Boroughs.
Further re-organisation in 1985 led to many County Brigades being re-named. Over recent years a number of Brigades have again been taken out of local authority control to become independent Fire Authorities.
The UK Fire Service is constantly developing new techniques and equipment to combat mans oldest enemy- FIRE.