The World Wars

The First World War saw a shortage of manpower in brigades as reservists (many who were firemen) were called up. The reservists were returned to fire fighting duties after fires caused by the German bombing raids almost overwhelmed the brigades.
The co-operation between brigades was now being encouraged after a few "over the border" problems and the whole of the country was divided into areas to overcome this problem. Full co-operation was not established, however, until after the 1918 Armistice.
One problem that became apparent during World War I was that of non-standardisation. Hydrants, stand pipes and hose couplings were a problem when different brigades were working together.
Fire appliance development progressed rapidly between the wars, the main improvement being the size of turntable ladders and the introduction of "closed" cabs for the crew. In the lead up to World War II, minimum fire fighting requirements were set out by Government for all of the country whilst the situation in Germany was monitored.
The International situation meant that by April 1938 the Auxiliary Fire Service had over 20000 pumps available and 30000 firemen had been recruited. In the early days of the second World War a slight amount of friction developed between the AFS and regular fire fighters, but the main problem was still that of equipment incompatibility. This was overcome in the short term by the manufacture of adapters for different size hose couplings etc. The AFS really proved their worth as the blitz intensified and the opinions people had of them in the early days were completely turned around.
On 22nd May 1941 the National Fire Service was formed to unify the whole of the country and eliminate any operational problems. At this time the treasury also ordered 2000 Austin K2 Towing Vehicles ("ATVs"). With the ending of the war on 8th May 1945, the NFS was gradually disbanded, and in its final months converted as many hydrants as possible to be standard sluice valve types and tried to standardise equipment.
On 1st April 1948 the fire brigades reverted back to local authority control.