Ashley Ruddick

The History of the UK Fire and Rescue Service

The first organised fire fighting is believed to have originated in the UK during the Roman invasion in AD43. Even then, fighting fires was often limited to nothing better than buckets of water or simple syringes that squirted water at the fire. Once the Romans left, fire fighting took a backward step as communities fell into decline. Following some spectacular losses, some parishes organised basic fire fighting, but no regulations or standards were in force. The Great Fire of London, in 1666, changed things and helped to standardise urban fire fighting. Following a public outcry during the aftermath of probably the most famous fire ever, a property developer named Nicholas Barbon introduced the first kind of insurance against fire. Soon after the formation of this insurance company, and in a bid to help reduce the cost and number of claims, he formed his own Fire Brigade. A major change in the way fires were fought came into being in the mid 1850s when the first reliable steam powered appliances were adopted by brigades. These appliances replaced the manual engines and allowed a far great quantity of water to be to be directed onto a fire. These Steam powered appliances were only to last slightly longer than 50 years due to the introduction of the internal combustion engine in the early 1900s. Before 1938 there were between 1400 and 1500 small municipal fire brigades run by local councils in the UK. The Fire Services Act (1947) became effective on the 1st of April 1948; this resulted in 148 County Council and County Borough run Fire Brigades. This act has since been updated as recently as 2004. In 1974 following local government re-organisation many brigades were amalgamated, losing many City and County Borough Fire Brigades. There are at present 63 brigades in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Ashley Ruddick

The History of the UK Fire and Rescue Service

The Fire and Rescue Service attend 1000s of incidents a year, many of which go unnoticed. There are many incidents that will go down in history, not always for the right reasons as usually they consist of incidents which have resulted in losses of life, and in many cases large numbers. This is a list of some of the most famous fires of the past and the present.

Alexandra Palace 1980 Amoco Refinery 1983 Bishops gate Fire 1964 Bradford FC Fire 1985 Brighton Bomb 1984 Butlers Wharf 1931 Clapham Train Crash 1988 Customs House 1814 Lancashire Mill 1969 Lockerbie Bomb 1988 Manchester Airport Disaster 1985 Maryhill Road Fire 1972 Rose and Crown Hotel 1969 Theatre Royal 1856 The Top Storey Club 1961 Tower of London 1841 Woolworths Fire 1979 Windsor Castle 1992 York Minster 1984

Ashley Ruddick