Evening star., 1941-06-09
Britoin's Fire Fighters
Being NotionoIized
Writer Tells of Manifest Need
For Central Authority
In Time of War
BY H. J. ]. SARGENT,
ny Ihs Dc % ChAsoAANAt
Foreign Correspondent of The Star and
Consolidated News Service.

Foreign COrrespOnQent
Consolidated News Service.
LONDON, June THE urgent need
for the naturalization of the fire-fght-
ing machinery of Britain has been rec
ognized by the government. A great
amalgamation of fire brigades is going
on throughout the country.
Incendiarism from the air has be-
come one of the weapons of war and
the nation has to be defended from 1t
just as much as from any other method
of attack The details of the new or
ganization make interesting reading not
only in England but also in the United
States, where I feel great mistake
would be made if it were considered that
the North American Continent were i'm
mune from incendiary bombs in the
event of war.
Briefly, the whole fire brigade estab-
lishment of England and Wales, which
hitherto has been maintained and op-
Grated by municipalities, is taken over by
the central government. Fire fighting
has always been one of the Cinderellas
| of administration. In no country that
the fire organization been under a CEN
tral government.
In most European countries 1t is run
on semi-military basis. In France, for
instance, the sapeurs- -pompiers carry
rifles and bayonets and sometimes march
| to the sound of drums and bugles. am
speaking now of France before the Ger
man occupation. Paris has its own fire
brigade under a colonel. Much the
same arrangement prevails in Italy and
in some Balkan countries.
In England the military element Is
completely absent, but hitherto the pro-
lection of lives and property from fire
| has been in the hands of no fewer than
| 1400 different fire brigades. Some, like
those of London, Liverpool and Man
| chester, have been models of their kind,
but many of the smaller ones, run on a
| voluntary basis, have been of little or
no use and it has always been a source
Of surprise to me that the insurance
companies have not kicked against the
prevailing system. 1t requires a war,
with all the horrors of flaming cities, to
wake up the country to the urgent need
| for change.
England and Wales now are to be di-
vided into so fire-hghting regions. each
with a regional commissioner directed
by chief of the fire staff in London.
The service will be a state service and
there will be no overlapping, as was the
case when 1,400 different administra-
tions each had finger in the business.
At present there are 10000 full-time
firemen in the country and 10000 part
time members of the auxiliary fire serv-
ice as compared with a total profess
sional fire force of between 5000 to 5000
just before the war Until the govern
ment took over the fire services, a fire.
fighting operation of quite ordinary di-
mensions often required the cooperation
of 20 or 80 different local authorities and
of as many brigades.
The necessity for the new measure is
so clear that the detached observer may
be forgiven for wondering why the
change has been so long delayed. To this
perhaps the answer is that Whitehall,
which anticipated very heavy fires and
widespread destruction when war broke
out, did not move until volume of ex-
perience had been built up and the
necessary plans had been drafted
In this writer's opinion, the govern
ment plans do not go far enough. I do
not know what the home ONCE, which is
the ministry responsible for taking over
the fire services, has at the back of its
mind, but considering that the fighting
of fires has become military operation
just as much as the fighting of any other
battle on land, 1t is perhaps surprising
that greater numbers of men are not
being drafted into the fire brigades
Another source Of wonder is that only
about 1,250. 900 pounds sterling a year is
being spent on the auxiliary fire service
England is spending about $4,000, 600
pounds day on the war.
can see the time coming when this
country and indeed any country will
treat the danger of fire from the skies
as one of the major operations of an
enemy, to be combatted with as much
forethought and preparation as a pos
sible invasion, in the case of an island
like England, or as the overrunning of a
land frontier by masses Of tanks.
And it is not only in the stating and
equipment of fire brigades that the cry
ing need for action arises. The country
must be divided into water areas, and
by that I mean that the water re-
sources should be so organized that fire
brigades, however excellently equipped
and well led. may not find themselves
handicapped at a vital moment by in
sufficient water supplies.
This question of water is very serious
but also very complicated one because
experience has shown that in big blitz
the amount of water used is fantastic
In heavy raid, mains might be broken
and the provision of an alternative
water supply becomes necessary. The
ideal would be for each house or build
ing to have in reserve SUFFICIENT water to
last brigade for one hour If that build
ing were to catch fire. If that plan
could be carried through a very large
proportion of the danger from fire raids