History of fire brigades in the United Kingdom

[1] Braidwood later went on to become superintendent of the London Fire Engine Establishment (LFEE), which brought together ten independent insurance company brigades in 1833.

A 7-foot-tall (2.1 m) bronze statue of Braidwood, located in Parliament Square in Edinburgh, commemorates his achievements.

Today it exists to give "recognition to individuals who perform acts of bravery in rescuing others from fire".

[6] At roughly the same time, the Auxiliary Fire Service, consisting largely of unpaid volunteers, was formed in parallel to the Air Raid Precautions organisation.

Every borough and urban district had an AFS unit, and they operated their own fire stations in parallel to the local authority.

Members of the AFS could be called up for full-time paid service if necessary, a similar arrangement applied to the wartime Special Constabulary.

The 1938 Act was replaced by the Fire Services Act 1947, which disbanded the National Fire Service and made firefighting functions the responsibility of county and county borough councils, meaning there were still far fewer brigades than before the war.

This led to the establishment of fire and civil defence authorities which were joint boards of London and metropolitan borough councils.

Central government responsibility for fire brigades was handed to the Scottish Office and the Secretary of State for Scotland upon their creation in 1885.

Minor name changes took place throughout the life of these brigades; "Northern" was changed to "Highlands and Islands" in 1983, "Central Region" became "Central Scotland" when local government was again reformed in 1996, and all brigades except Tayside and the Highlands and Islands eventually adopted the name "Fire and Rescue Service".

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has its headquarters in Cambuslang (having initially been based in Perth).

As in Great Britain, there were numerous local authority fire brigades in Northern Ireland until the Second World War.