"When the National Fire Service was formed, the Home Secretary promised that when it was all over we'd get our fire brigades back."

The Home Office broke that promise. By the end of the Second World War a revised Fire Services Act compelled the creation of county fire brigades. The borough, town and parish brigades were never to return.

Throughout the between-the-wars period the Island's fire chiefs and men worked hard to learn new skills, adapt to motorised engines and pumps, swap their iconic brass helmets for safer leather patterns and evolve their trade beyond anything previously experienced in preparation for the anticipated war.

Little did they know that those events, for which they so arduously endeavoured, would, for their fiercely proud brigades, mean the beginning of the end.