Fire service historian and author
Roger Mardon
www.romar.org.uk
© Copyright Roger Mardon
www.romar.org.uk
All rights reserved
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-
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-
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 following pages list the fire brigades created under the 1947 Act and subsequently.
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