History of the fire service The modern day Fire Brigade has evolved following many years of development

and improvements since almost pre-history. From the time man discovered fire, he has also battled to control the flames. The first organised fire-fighting is believed to have originated in the UK during the Roman invasion in AD43. Even then, fighting fires was often limited to nothing better than buckets of water or simple syringes that squirted water at the fire. Once the Romans left, fire-fighting took a backward step as communities fell into decline. During the middle ages many towns and cities simply burned down because of ineffective fire fighting arrangements and because of the building materials used at the time; mainly wood. Following some spectacular losses, some parishs organised basic fire-fighting, but no regulations or standards were in force. The Great Fire of London, in 1666, changed things and helped to standardise urban fire fighting. A major change in the way fires were fought came into being in the mid 1850s when the first reliable steam powered appliances were adopted by brigades. These appliances replaced the manual engines and allowed a far great quantity of water to be to be directed onto a fire. These Steam powered appliances were only to last slightly longer than 50 years due to the introduction of the internal combustion engine in the early 1900s. Further changes, carried out in 1986, saw the formation of some Municipal Boroughs and some County Brigades were renamed. More recently, many of these Brigades have been removed from Local Authority control and have become independent Fire Authorities. There are at present 63 brigades in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.