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Brief look at UK Fire Service History.
There were no organised fire fighting or fire services in the UK until
Roman Times.
In Rome, a great fire in AD6 saw almost 25% of Rome destroyed. This
forced Emperor Augustus to organize a fire brigade, known as the "Corps of
Vigiles".
This was so efficient that the idea came to England along with the
Romans. |
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The collapse of the Roman Empire put an end to the first organised fire
brigades in the UK.
After the Romans left, people in the UK never worried about fire, due to the
houses being poorly built from primitive materials, being cheap and easy to
replace, and not built close together, so fire spread wasn’t a problem.
In the time of King Alfred, soldiers were grouped together in fortified
areas, and towns sprung up alongside these areas, that became firetraps.
These conditions were suffered for a few hundred years.
Many towns and cities had major fires, ending with the first fire of
London in 1212. This fire killed over 3000 people with some estimates
putting the figure many times higher. Some minor fire precautions in towns
and cities were put into place after this fire, but it wouldn’t be until
Saturday 1st September 1666 that things would change.
The 2nd Great Fire of London started in a bakers shop in Pudding Lane at
2 in the morning, the resulting blaze lasted for 3 days and left 200,000
people homeless, with 12,000 houses destroyed.
The people set with the task of rebuilding London, decided that a
disaster on this scale must never be repeated. One of the people given the
task of rebuild was a Dr. Barbon, who charged an “insurance premium” to
cover the cost of a fire amongst a large number of people.
The City was also divided into quarter and each quarter was equipped with
fire fighting equipment. The first “insurance fire Brigades” were born.
Plates or plaques were fastened to the outside of buildings, to show which
insurance fire brigade would put out the fire.
The first “fire engine” dates back to 1612, but was primitive and
unreliable. It was not until 1721 that a pump that could supply an efficient
continuous clean jet of water was developed.
Many towns and parishes had manual pumps, but manning them proved
difficult. Well into the 1700s it was the responsibility of church
authorities to provide fire-fighting services.
In 1791 three insurance services provide street fire patrols in London.
At the end of the 18th century the threat of a French invasion saw defence
organizations formed, these groups had little to do so were given the job of
fire fighting. This continued well after Napoleons defeat.
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In 1824 Edinburgh was the first authority to form a
proper organized fire brigade. James Braidwood (left) was given
the job of Master of the Fire Engines. At his first major fire
confusion reigned, as his orders were not received, or were ignored,
because of other “gentlemen” also giving orders at the same time.
He organised the training of his men, so communication was
improved, and command understood.
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In 1832 several of the London insurance companies amalgamated, James
Braidwood was recruited as head of the London Fire Engine Establishment.
Braidwood organized a disciplined group of men, and improved fire fighting
in London to a standard never seen before, James Braidwood died whilst
fighting a fire in 1861 at a warehouse Tooley Street London.
Due to the difficulty and costs of manpower in the middle of the19th
Century, interest in steam appliances was renewed. In 1858 Shand, Mason and
Co produced a more reliable steam powered fire engine.
In the 1860s brigade in the UK were organised by the police, insurance
companies, volunteer brigades and private brigades. After Braidwood died, a
police fire brigade was formed under the control of Metropolitan Board of
Works.
| Captain Eyre Massey Shaw (right) was recruited as Chief Officer
to take charge when the brigade formed in 1866. Captain Shaw
formed an efficient brigade, improving equipment and manpower as
well as increasing the number of fire stations.
Around 1900 the telephone started to be introduced, leading to
better communication and easier summonsing the fire brigade.
Many local brigades were also formed around this time, but a lack
of standardisation of equipment would lead to major problems later
on. |
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The First World War saw major problems with fire fighting due to the
incompatibility of equipment from different brigades, especially as hoses
had different fittings in different brigades and standpipes from one area
would not be of any use in other areas. Thing didn’t change until the onset
of the Second World War. In 1938 the Auxiliary Fire service was formed and
ran alongside other brigades during the war until 1942. Problems between
regular fire services and the AFS continued. The main problem was still that
of equipment incompatibility. To address the problem a range of adaptors was
produced to make equipment more compatible. 22nd May 1941 saw the National
Fire Service was formed, this unified fire fighting throughout the country.
The NFS was gradually disbanded after the war, but not until most hydrants
were converted to the standard sluice valve type, and other equipment
standardised.
On 1st April 1948 fire fighting was returned to local authority control.
After a fire in 1956 at a mill in Keighley Yorkshire, legislation was passed
to cover fire safety at work.
In April 1974 large County brigades were formed, losing the old City and
County Boroughs.
Re-organisation in 1985 saw many County Brigades being re-named, and in
recent years many Brigades have again been taken out of local authority
control and became independent Fire Authorities. |