Fire service historian and author

Roger Mardon

 

 

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FIRE AUTHORITIES

 

Section 1, Fire Brigades Act 1938 provided that the council of every county borough and county district must make provision for the extinction of fire and the protection of life and property in case of fire by securing (among other things) the services of a fire brigade, engines and equipment. Until then local authorities had been empowered, but generally not compelled, to provide a fire brigade but many failed to do so, or to do so with any efficiency.  

 

Consequently, in England and Wales, the fire authorities of the day were the councils of county boroughs, non-county boroughs, urban districts and rural districts. In Scotland the responsibility fell on the burghs and the counties.

 

The Act did not affect the London Fire Brigade which remained constituted under the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act 1865.

 

The fire service was nationalised with effect from 18 August 1941 by Regulations made under the Fire Services (Emergency Provisions) Act 1941.  

 

The Fire Services Act 1947 returned the service to local authority control with effect from 1 April 1948 in England and Wales and from 16 May 1948 in Scotland. The new fire authorities were the 63 county councils (including London and the Isles of Scilly) and the 83 county borough councils in England and Wales, joint schemes reducing the number of brigades to 135.  In Scotland 11 new brigades were created. The Fire Services Act (Northern Ireland) 1947 created four fire authorities for Northern Ireland effective from 1 January 1948, the Belfast, Northern, Southern and Western Fire Authorities.

 

Since the immediate post-war legislation there have been many changes to local government boundaries and fire brigade areas. For an overview of these changes, see Local Government and the Fire Service.

 

The fire service in England and Wales is now established under the Fire & Rescue Services Act 2004, in Scotland under the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 and in Northern Ireland under the Fire and Rescue Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006, made under the Northern Ireland Act 2000. Responsibility for provision of the fire service is devolved, to a greater or lesser extent, to the Scottish Parliament in Scotland, to the National Assembly for Wales in Wales and to the Northern Ireland Assembly in Northern Ireland.

 

In general terms there is a duty imposed on fire authorities to plan for and provide arrangements for fighting fire and protecting life and property from fire. Fire safety provision is now a duty rather than a discretionary function, as is response to road traffic accidents. Over-the-border attendance is also a duty if a brigade has better resources than its neighbour to deal with a particular incident. There are special legislative provisions for dealing with chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear emergencies, train and plane crashes, and maritime incidents.

 

The following pages list the fire brigades created under the 1947 Act and subsequently.

 

 

SCOTLAND

WALES

NORTHERN IRELAND

ENGLAND

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Fire Brigades - England 1948.
Local Government & the Fire Service.