Firefighters

didn’t always have these everyday heroes. A long time ago, there were no firefighters.

Today, we are lucky to have a fire service as part of our emergency services.
If there is a fire, we can call 999 and the fire service will come to put it out. Sometimes, they help rescue animals or people stuck in cars.

fire in London. It started in a baker’s shop on Pudding Lane on Sunday 2nd September 1666.

All of the houses and shops were made from wood and they were built very close together. This meant that the fire spread quickly.

of people tried to put the fire out. They only had leather buckets, which they filled with water, axes, fire hooks and squirters.

Leather buckets had to be passed from person to person in a long chain to get the water from the river to the burning buildings.

‘fire break’, where houses were blown up to try to stop the fire spreading.

The fire burnt for days. When the fire went out, many houses and shops in London were destroyed.

wanted to make sure that there would never be a fire like this again. New buildings were made from bricks so they wouldn’t burn so quickly and the streets were widened.

One year after the Great Fire of London, the first fire service was set up. They would go to a fire and put it out if people needed them. This fire service didn’t put every fire out, though. Instead, they only went to the homes of people who had paid them money to look after (insure) their house. The fire brigades put a ‘fire mark’ on each house that had paid to be looked after (insured).

joined together to make one fire service which later became the London Fire Brigade. Eventually, the government passed a law that meant every county in the UK had their own fire brigade.

War. Many young men had joined the British army to fight in the war. This meant that there were not enough men to join the fire service.
During the Second World War, women were allowed to join. They were only allowed to be fire watchers (people who look out for fires), drivers and to manage the communication systems.

Women were finally allowed to join the fire service around 40 years ago. The first woman to join the fire service was called Josephine Reynolds and she joined in 1982.

London

Uniform
no uniform
no fire service

and a hose spanner
fire trailers that were pulled by horses

by taxis

them visible

Equipment
trailer pumps towed by taxis

the coat and the trousers
waterproof uniform
better protection against the heat and flames

Equipment
modern fire engine with flashing blue lights and fluorescent yellow stripes

uniform is a golden colour. It is made from a special, protective material. This means that firefighters are protected against fire and any spillages.
Firefighters wear helmets which have a built-in torch.
Radios are worn so firefighters can speak to each other.

hoping that, in the future, some of these will be powered by electricity because this will cut down pollution.

camera that shows a firefighter how warm things are. It is very useful when there is so much smoke or darkness that firefighters can’t see clearly.

Technology
Firefighters wear a tracking device, which connects to a computer and tells other firefighters exactly where they are.

the night. These shifts mean that there is always someone able to come and fight a fire at any time of the day or night when you call 999.