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From Fighting Fires to Fighting Firemen: A Fractured Fire Service, 1947–78

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Fighting Fires

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Abstract

The 1947 Fire Services Act re-established key pre-war traditions in the fire service. Firefighting became a legal function of local government, albeit as the statutory responsibility of 50 counties and 75 county boroughs (as well as ten brigades administered by joint boards) in England and Wales, ranging from large full-time municipal brigades to largely part-time units in the more rural counties. In this sense, firefighting was ranked alongside other environmental services like town planning, and personal services like policing and childcare, which were also made the responsibility of the county tiers of local government during the late 1940s.1 The largest bodies remained London Fire Brigade, with over 2000 full-time firemen, and the larger county borough brigades, including Birmingham (with an authorized strength of 650 firemen), Liverpool (500) and Manchester (351).2 The police model of service administration was adopted, with the stick of national inspection counter-balanced by the carrot of an exchequer grant of 25 per cent of the fire authority’s annual charge. The remaining 75 per cent largely fell upon local taxation.3

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Notes

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leeds Metropolitan University, UK

    Shane Ewen (Senior Lecturer, Social and Cultural History)

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© 2010 Shane Ewen

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Ewen, S. (2010). From Fighting Fires to Fighting Firemen: A Fractured Fire Service, 1947–78. In: Fighting Fires. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230248403_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230248403_9

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-35492-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-230-24840-3

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

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