Auxiliary Fire
Service
The Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) was first formed in 1938 in the UK as
part of Civil Defence Air Raid Precautions (ARP). Its role was to
supplement the work of brigades at local level. In this job it was
hampered severely by the incompatibility of equipment used by these
different brigades - most importantly the lack of a standard size of
hydrant valve. The Auxiliary Fire Service and the local brigades were
superseded in August 1941 by the National Fire Service, at the
time my father was a messenger based at the station at the
Halfway, Walton on Thames in Surrey.
Members of the AFS were unpaid part-time volunteers, but could be called
up for whole-time paid service if necessary. This was very similar to
the wartime establishment of the police Special Constabulary. Men and
women could join, the latter mainly in an administrative role. Boys were
used as dispatch riders, on bicycles if they were too young to hold a
motorcycle licence, and graduated to motorcycles at 16. Fairly early on
in the war women were admitted to the AFS, chiefly as fire watchers or
in offices. At the end of WWII the fire service reverted to the pre-1939
format, and hence the volunteer element was disbanded.
The Auxiliary Fire Service was re-formed in 1949 alongside the Civil
Defence Corps. Initially it used the old NFS equipment, but this soon
proved inadequate.
The Cold War AFS hose fittings were aluminium rather than the brass
which was common at the time, however the sizes were the same and were
therefore interchangeable. Basic training took about 60 hours, the
minimum age for joining was thirty.
Initially the AFS and regular fire services were to be kept separate for
political reasons, and they were only meant to train and exercise
together. This attitude made recruitment difficult initially.
Fortunately it was soon realised that this was a serious waste of a
significant resource, and soon the AFS could be seen taking a more
active role in emergencies. Initially the recruitment target was to have
two auxiliaries for every full-time fireman, and one for every
part-time. These targets were never met.
Within a few years, AFS crews frequently attended fires and accidents
alongside their regular colleagues. They provided significant assistance
at some of the worst fires, such as that at Billingsgate Market and at
Barking wood yard. AFS personnel were trained in firefighting by their
own officers and with assistance from full-time fire officers. Many were
trained to the St John Ambulance Higher First Aider Certificate standard
- often proving invaluable at major incidents involving injury.
Recruitment
The majority of recruitment probably took place by word-of-mouth, but
active recruitment also involved advertising in the press, in cinemas
and during recruitment drives. Such recruitment usually ran alongside
recruitment for the Civil Defence Corps.
Recruitment posters
Green Goddess
From 1951 the AFS was re-equipped with 1,000 Green Goddess (Bedford RLHZ
Self Propelled Pump) fire engines and a large number of other vehicles,
including Land Rovers and Austin Champs & Gypsies, hose carriers, all
painted Land Rover bronze green.
The Green Goddesses were used in two forms, a 4x4 and a 2x4 version
(the most common type issued) both were fitted with a Sigmund 900gpm
(gallons per minute) pump, and both machines also carried a Coventry
Climax 300gpm featherweight portable pump. The only difference between the
two types other than the obvious 4 or 2 wheel drive was the positions of
the first aid hose reels and the 4x4 had a 300 gallon tank, the 4x2 had a
400 gallon tank. Pumps could combine to provide a pipe relay over great
distances when connected using 6-inch hose, supplying large volumes of
water from one location to another, often the seat of a major fire.
The picture below the Green Goddess is of an operations vehicle. These
were to be deployed in areas where either a major incident had been
declared, or where the permanent structure had been put out of action.
An inflatable dam was often used as the source for the relay, usually fed
by using several Light Portable Pumps powered by Coventry Climax FWP
engines. 
These
pumps were sometimes floated on a 'Bikini' raft (an inflatable) so they
could draw directly from a water supply such as a river. The complete
Bikini unit comprised a Commer flat bed truck with three rafts
carried on a rack on the cab roof, on the bed of the truck were six pumps,
with hoses and fittings in lockers below the bed. In addition a launching
ramp, trolley wheels and a hand-operated winch, together with ropes etc
were provided.
The AFS frequently exercised alongside the Civil Defence Corps, in
addition to their own training exercises and on one occasion I saw a
Bikini raft equipped with two LWPs, one of which was used to propel the
craft at high speed along the River Thames at Walton-on-Thames. The other
produced a firefighting jet.
1962 Re-organisation
In 1962, the AFS, alongside the other civil defence services, underwent a
radical re-organisation. The process was similar in all the
services. First there was a general weeding out of volunteers who were
ineffective and who had not complied with the training requirement. The
minimum age for joining was reduced to 17, and the maximum age became 55.
A two tier volunteer structure was introduced: "fully
operational" who would be on a three year engagement and "reserve". Upon
completion of three years as operational volunteers were placed on the
reserve. Those placed on the reserve would have completed fifty
hours of training. Volunteers on the reserve were expected to complete at
least one training session per year, failure to do so resulted in
dismissal. At the same time a bounty became payable to those who had
completed the three year training programme and who passed proficiency
tests. The £10 bounty was paid annually.
Another re-organisation happened in 1967, this comprised a reduction in
manpower, and changes to the training programme, this happened less than
12 months before they were disbanded completely. Those who had not
completed the required amount of training in the previous twelve months
were dismissed. The changes to the training programme required fewer total
hours, and a reduction in the number of large scale exercises.
Mobile AFS Columns
From 1953 a principle role of the AFS became the creation
of mobile columns, each equipped with full range of vehicles (AJS
motorcycles, Land Rovers, green 
goddesses, communications, control, hose laying
and rescue) plus communications equipment
comprising vhf radio and field telephones. The idea being that
they could be deployed to areas where local fire services had either been
knocked out or severely depleted. The first column training started at Epsom
and was manned by the military who acted as trainers. Once the scheme had
been trialed each civil defence region was to create one or more AFS mobile
columns.
A mobile AFS column comprised six companies, one of which was the
headquarters, or yellow company. A full column comprised 675 personnel with
144 vehicles. As can be appreciated the general public were not enamored of
the mobile columns when on the move, as they would be up to eight miles in
length. It is recorded that there was sufficient equipment available to form
forty such columns, however data suggests that there were never sufficient
trained volunteers to man them.
In addition to their firefighting equipment, the AFS were also supplied
with, and trained in the use of the same RADIAC
equipment as the Civil Defence Corps, namely the quartz-fibre
dosimeter and chargers, contamination meters, and radiac survey meters.
They also trained in chemical and biological warfare protection, and had
the same equipment for this as the Civil Defence Corps.
Disbandment/ stand-down
In March 1968, alongside the Civil Defence Corps, the AFS was disbanded,
although this was expressed, at the time, as a "stand-down"
