When the German Luftwaffe bombed Britain’s major cities from the air with high explosives and incendiary bombs for 8 months during the Blitz of the Second World War (September 1940 to May 1941), the country’s fire service – including hundreds of small provincial brigades and the volunteer Auxiliary Fire Service – was in danger of being overwhelmed.
Recognising this fatal weakness against enemy attack, the coalition government led by Winston Churchill, inaugurated a new National Fire Service on 18 August 1941 that consolidated and unified the service across Britain.
Fire fighting in the 19th and 20th Centuries
In the 19th century, firefighting was heavily dependent on insurance companies who maintained fire brigades in many medium and larger towns. Some smaller towns and villages had no fire cover at all.
As the 19th century progressed, the number of volunteer fire brigades increased. These relied on donations and public subscriptions. In larger towns and cities, the local authorities began to financially support brigades. Some operated a joint police and fire service, with police-firemen under the control of the Chief Constable. Rural fire stations relied on volunteer or part-time firefighters.
1938: the Volunteer Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS)
As the 1930s progressed, the threat of another world war hung over Britain. It was quickly recognised that such a conflict would involve sustained enemy air attacks that would put the existing fire services under tremendous pressure.
In January 1938, the government passed the Fire Brigades Act which authorised the formation of the Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS), made up of volunteers. These firefighters would be trained by, and work alongside, professional fire fighters. Local authorities were given responsibility for providing an effective fire service. Rural districts pooled resources for greater efficiency.
28,000 volunteers were needed and a recruitment drive was launched. As many men were increasingly directed towards the armed forces, AFS volunteers included those too young or too old to be called up, as well as those otherwise exempt from military service. For the first time women were encouraged to join. They were not officially permitted to fight fires, working instead in non-operational roles.
By the start of the Second World War in September 1939, the AFS had over 200,000 members.
1941: The founding of the National Fire Service
The Blitz of the Second World War changed everything again. During an intensive 8 months, London suffered 57 consecutive nights of high explosive and incendiary bombing by the Luftwaffe. Major cities across Britain, including Manchester, Coventry, Birmingham, Liverpool, Bristol, Southampton, Swansea and Glasgow were also heavily attacked.
London by now had a well-organised fire service and was broadly successful in tackling the infernos caused by the Blitz. But the picture in provincial cities with their numerous small brigades was far more chaotic – inexperienced fire fighters were sometimes sent to major incidents; there were confused chains of command, conflicting orders and incompatible equipment.
An urgent and radical overhaul of fire provision resulted in the Fire Service (Emergency Provisions) Act which unified the 1,888 fire authorities in England, Wales and Scotland and established a National Fire Service under government control, effective from 18 August 1941.
The NFS was an amalgamation of all the local authority fire brigades countrywide, plus the AFS, initially into 43 ‘Fire Force’ areas, usually associated with the various counties and larger cities.
During the longer lulls between enemy attacks, many firemen and firewomen were engaged in small scale industrial production, such as making wireless sets and mine detectors. They also were involved in building work, including the repair and construction of fire stations, such as the one above. In addition, they made toys and grew vegetables – and sometimes reared animals – on bomb sites near fire stations to help relieve food shortages.
NFS firefighters not only fought fires in industrial and commercial premises and homes, but also dealt with emergencies such as crashed military aircraft and munitions explosions, as well as undertaking search and rescue and salvage in bomb-damaged areas in liaison with the Civil Defence Service.
Women in the National Fire Service
The NFS was open to both men and women. At its peak Spring 1943, it had 345,000 full and part-time personnel, including 71,000 women and over 19,000 Youth Messengers – boys aged 16 to 18.
Women were still not allowed to fight fires. However, they were given basic training to deal with emergency situations and were often very close to the action during and after air raids.
Women’s roles included fire watchers, drivers, communication network operators, hose repairers, cooks, as well as dispatch riders who carried messages between fire control and fire stations – a dangerous job, often riding in the black-out, along roads with no signage, sometimes during bombing raids.
National Fire Service fire boats
Among the NFS’s around 330 marine craft nationwide were 242 river, estuary and sea-going Fire Boats. Most were converted former naval and civilian vessels. There were also fire-fighting barges, narrow boats and landing craft operating at coastal and inland ports.
Water supplies
Air raids in London often occurred when the River Thames was at low tide. To overcome shortages of water, boreholes were sunk in the river bed connected by pipes to bridges above from where water was pumped through pipelines to on-shore tanks and other facilities known as Emergency Water Supplies (EWS).
Emergency Water Supplies were installed on sites nationwide in potential enemy target areas. Various methods were used as above, including utilising the basements of demolished bombed buildings for water storage.
Locations were clearly identified, either with the letters EWS – sometimes on a cross which also often indicated the tank capacity – or alternatively with the words NFS Water.
The National Fire Service during the war
By the time the NFS was fully up and running, the threat of enemy air raids on Britain receded. Germany had turned its attention eastwards, invading the Soviet Union in June 1941.
However, between late April and late June 1942, the Luftwaffe attacked some of Britain’s most historic cities, including Canterbury, Bath, Exeter, Norwich and York. The raids were the first major test of the NFS. Despite extensive damage to the cities’ centres, the service managed to contain the spread of fires, something the AFS would have been too disorganised to cope with.
Legacy of the National Fire Service
After the end of the Second World War, the Fire Services Act of 1947 reorganised the fire service, disbanding the NFS and returning control to local authorities.
The NFS had laid the foundation for the modern fire service. It had standardised firefighting – organisation, rank, structure, terminology, equipment, training – and, for the first time, ensured that every part of Britain, including rural areas, had full and effective fire protection.
Memorials to the NFS
Pictured is the national memorial to fire personnel killed during the Second World War. There are also local memorials across the country. This one includes the inscription: ‘Blitz/The Heroes with Grimy Faces/Winston Churchill/In honour and memory of those firefighters who gave their lives in defence of the nation 1939-1945.’ The memorial was re-dedicated in September 2003, with the addition of 1,192 names, to commemorate all firefighters who have lost their lives since the war.
Written by Nicky Hughes
Further reading
- London Fire Brigade
- Thanks to William Hickin, author of ‘Fire Force, a Short Organisational History and Directory of the National Fire Service 1941 to 1948.’ WFH Publications. For enquiries and purchase, contact Roy Goodey at WFH Publications: roygoodey@hotmail.com.
- Fireground Museum
- Fire Heritage
- England’s Historic Cities under Attack: The Baedeker Raids, 1942
Me Grandad Arthur Lewis Augustus Joseph Merriman was in the Auxiliary Fire Service during WW2 serving at The Mitchell’s and Butler’s Brewery Fire Station in Cape Hill on the border between #Birmingham and #Smethwick. He had served in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in the Great War where he was a sniper having shot rabbits in his home village of Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire before the Great War and became a crackshot. He had tried to sign up to serve in the British Army in World War Two but was told that he was too old at the age of 40. So he joined the Auxiliary Fire Service and we had his gas mask, stirrup pump and bucket which he used on Fire 🔥 Watch during World War Two. Smethwick Heritage Centre the Museum in the Park had the original Pre World War Two fire engine on display some years ago now but it was a magnificent engine Keith Bracey
There is a group thar reenact the work of the NFS at 1940s shows in the Midlands. See nfs-afs.org.uk or facebook.com/nfs.and.afs for details.
A good summary. My Dad joined the NFS and was based at Whitefriars in the City of London. He helped to save St Paul’s Cathedral. They had to fight fires while the blitz was taking place and in many ways it was as harrowing and dangerous as being on the front. Dad survived but saw many of his comrades lost. His trade was a master bookbinder but he enjoyed the camaraderie and stayed on in the fire service after the war until he retired.
An interesting article but a shame about the inaccuracies. In the 19th century firefighting was heavily dependent on the insurance companies. They maintained fire brigades in many medium and larger towns and often donated fire engines to smaller towns. During the 19th century there was an increase in the number of volunteer fire brigades established and these relied on donations and public subscriptions. In larger towns and cities, the local authorities did begin to provide brigades or support the volunteer brigades financially, but in smaller towns they remained dependent on donations until 1938. Whilst some operated police fire brigades, many others did not, and they kept the services separate.
The 1938 Fire Brigades Act had nothing to do with the formation of the Auxiliary Fire Service. It was the 1937 Air Raid Precautions Act that required urban and rural local authorities to provide an auxiliary fire service to deal with fires resulting from air raids. The 1938 Fire Brigades Act then required urban and rural local authorities to provide fire brigades to fight peacetime fires. Up until then there had been no national requirement for local authorities to provide a firefighting service. The Act also ended the practice of charging for attending fires. Although most authorities took the opportunity to make their Chief Fire Officer also responsible for the AFS, some did not and instead kept the AFS under the control of the person responsible for air aid precautions.
Hi Tony, we have amended the section on fire fighting in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but the other information regarding the 1938 Fire Brigades Act came from the London Fire Brigade. Many thanks for your feedback.
Thank you for the amendment. Unfortunately London Fire Brigade’s information is incorrect, this website is accurate – https://www.ww2civildefence.co.uk/fire-guard-history.html. Not only have I researched this period in detail and examined both pieces of legislation, my Grandfather was a Chief Fire Officer covering three local authorities at the time. Each had to agree to his also becoming responsible for the emergency fire service (later called the auxiliary fire service) requirements of the 1937 Air Raid Precautions Act. I believe the confusion arises because the requirements of the 1937 ARP Act became effective during 1938, shortly before the 1938 Fire Brigades Act was passed. This may seem a minor point but I am sure you will agree that historical accuracy is very important.
I read with interest and enjoyed looking back at this time before my life. The dispatch rider force was just lovely. My grandfather was dispatch rider in London during the war. He could get his bike into amazing places. The pictures are a joy to observe. Many thankks for sharing these women and men who kept the blitz from completely flattening our capital.
My grandfather was in the fire service in a market town in Northamptonshire during the war. His crew were sent to Coventry during the blitz, where he very nearly died when buning buildings collapsed next to him. He said they and other outside crews wasted precious time because the hose fixtures in Coventry were different to Northamptonshire. Every county and major city had differing couplings. No one in the government had thought to ensure adaptors were issued generally on the offset of war: with tragic results. The crews had to join hoses together and find the river, by which time the fires had really taken hold. A small but never mentioned fact.
I am clearing my bookshelf of unwanted books and publications.Among them is a WW2 booklet published by the National Fire Service Benevolent fund in 1944.Before I dispose of it has any collectors value.If not it will finish up in my fire pit.
Yes please if it is still available. Please email me on info@nfs-afs.org.uk
Thank you
David
My great grandfather was stationed at millwall station isle of dogs 1914-1944 and my grandfather (son) was in the auxiliary fire service at millwall with he’s farther
My grandfather, Jack Lawson, was in the fire service. Based in Whitstable, he was enjoying a well earned cuppa the fire station when a bomb hit the side of the building. He survived and his tea cup was found intact in the rubble. I have and treasure his fire service medal.
My Dad, a young man in 1939, was refused military service because of a “dicky heart”, so he joined the NFS instead, and faced just as much danger that way! During the Birmingham Blitz, when my Mom was pregnant with me, she worked at the BSA factory making munitions, and of course the big factories were prime targets for the Luftwaffe. Many were the times my Dad, fighting fires around the clock, could see the bombs raining down, on or near the BSA works. He never knew from one day to the next whether he’d ever see Mom alive again.
Leigh Barratt
01 January 2023
My mother Marjorie Cooper (at the time) was in the National Fire Service from the start of the war till the end. She was based in Manchester to start and at one point was a dispatcher. She was very proud of her service during those difficult times. One thing she always remembered was the camaraderie and the importance of the job. She never spoke of the horrible things she saw. To all who served, Thank You and God Bless.