The history of military firefighters extends back over 2000 years to the Roman times. Emporer Augustus founded the 'Corps of Vigiles' as a constituent part of the Roman Army in AD6, after a series of disastrous fires. This was the worlds first known, government sponsored, fire protection organisation. The training and equipment was advanced for the day and once the Roman Army withdrew from Britain there would be no organisation to rival them until the early 19th century.
The next signifiant event in the history of military firefighters was instigated by another Emporer, this time it was Napoleon 1st of France. On July 1, 1810, during a ball organized by the Austrian Ambassador in honor of the imperial couple, a fire broke out and spread rapidly. Napoleon I and Marie-Louise escaped the inferno unharmed. Having witnessed firsthand the helplessness of the firemen, the Emperor decided to militarize this trade association. From then on, firemen were firefighters, subject to unwavering discipline. They slept in station houses, always on call, and patrolled the city regularly, wearing shiny helmets to always be visible in case of smoke. They were absorbed into the French equivalent of the Roayal Engineers, and still to this day Paris, Marseille and ,I believe Tolouse, are protected by military firefighters.
There had been several large and destructive fires on RFC / RNAS / RAF camps throughout the early years of aviation when, in 1919 there was a particularly tragic and expensive fire costing almost half a million pounds and thirty two lives. This prompted the formation of a dedicated RAF Firefighting and Rescue Squadron. Although manned completely by 'volunteer' airmen it was initially trained by seconded officers from the Forerunner of todays London Fire and Rescue Service.
During the 1940's-60's there were a succession of smaller 'brigades' in the UK military, all working for one of the services, sometimes civilian and sometimes military. Dockyards had their own brigades as well, as the earliest known form of contract fire crews.
Over the years all these brigades were disbanded or merged with others to unify the fire protection on the military estate. However with the cessation of National Service in the early 60's many trades within the RAF were civilianised as there weren't enough servicemen to fill all the posts. The first Station to come wholly civilianised, but not contractorised, was RAF Lyneham.
Over the next 35 years more and more stations were transferred over to the forerunners of todays Defence Fire & Rescue Service, for a multitude of reasons. Whilst the strategic nuclear deterent was an airborne weapon system this often decided between RAF and civilian crews. At other stations it came down to money, it is perceived as cheaper to operate smaller stations with civilians. One of the reasons behind changing who staffed many stations were the drawdown of servicemen in the 1990's. Eventually on 1 April 1997 24 stations transferred overnight from the RAF, predominantly to contractors, although the DFS took a few. This signalled the return of widespread contractorisation of military fire protection 40 years after government policy had leant the other way.
Since that day only one station has transferred from the RAF to another organisation. The Joint Support Unit Corsham is now served by DF&RS since late 07, mainly due to the closure of the Shrivenham station, and manning shortages for the RAF.
Today we have fire protection supplied to the military by the RAF Firefighting & Rescue Squadron, the Royal Navy aircraft handler branch, the Defence fire & rescue service, locally employed civilians, Sodexho, Vosper Thoneycroft, Serco, Bombardier and many other contractors, under the umbrella of the Defence Fire Risk Managemant Organisation, DFRMO.
DT_Xtremez_06: