Preston’s first fire station was built in 1852 and was in use until 1962. Prior to the founding of municipal fire brigades, fire crews, and appliances were provided by voluntary bodies such as the Parish. Insurance companies kept their own fire brigades and for a regular fee, would extinguish your building. If you were not insured the building could have been left to burn.
Gradually significant cities such as Edinburgh and London formed their own brigades. These were publicly funded. The first was the Metropolitan Fire Brigade in 1866.
Preston’s first fire station was located on Tithebarn Street. It was built in 1852 and demolished in the late 1960s to make way for the new bus station. The building had a short-lived new lease of life, as a car valeting service.
A new fire station was opened in 1962, on Blackpool Road. This was much larger and is still in use today. Happily, fires are not as common as they were in Victorian times when a devastating fire destroyed Bloomfield Mill.
Unfortunately, there was a spate of mill fires in Preston during the 1870s. Textile mills were full of combustible materials and cotton dust in the air could spontaneously combust. One such blaze occurred in January 1871 when Bloomfield Mill, off North Road, began to burn. The building owned by Messrs Richard Threlfall and Sons burned for several hours, and despite the best efforts of the Preston Fire Brigade, the building was completely destroyed.
However, the brigade prevented nearby weaving sheds from combusting and there was no loss of life, initially, as the hands had enough warning to evacuate. Sadly, over 500 operatives were thrown out of work, although the mill was insured and later rebuilt.
Unfortunately, the building was to claim a victim during reconstruction. One afternoon the gable of the building was being rebuilt when it suddenly fell outwards. A support beam had snapped and Thomas Gibbons was thrown on to some joists, sixty feet below. Other workers were injured but Thomas unfortunately succumbed to his injuries.
In the run-up to World War II, the fire service was reorganised and effectively nationalised.
The Fire Brigades Act of 1938 created Fire Authorities out of county boroughs and municipal boroughs. They were required to provide the necessary equipment to serve their borough. However, the fire service was essentially nationalised in 1941 when the National Fire Service was formed. After the war, control reverted back to the county councils.
No article on Preston’s fire brigade would be complete without mentioning Leyland Motors, located just down the road from Preston. They made a range of fire appliances that were used throughout Britain in World War II.
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