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Firefighting
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===United Kingdom=== Prior to the [[Great Fire of London]] in 1666, some parishes in the UK had begun to organize rudimentary firefighting crews. After the Great Fire, [[Nicholas Barbon]] introduced the first fire insurance. In order to reduce insurance costs, Barbon also formed his own [[Fire Brigade|fire brigade]], and other companies followed suit. By the start of the 1800s, insured buildings were identified with a [[Fire insurance mark|badge or mark]] indicating that they were eligible for a company's firefighting services. It is a common belief that buildings not insured with a particular company were left by its firefighters to burn,<ref name="fireservice.co.uk">{{cite web |url=https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/museum/history-and-stories/early-insurance-brigades-brigades/ |last=London Fire Brigade |title=Early fire brigades |date=2023 |access-date=16 August 2023}}</ref> unless they happened to be adjacent to an insured building, in which case it was often in the company's interest to prevent the fire from spreading. This is a common misconception.<ref name="fireservice.co.uk"/> In 1833 fire insurance companies in London merged to form The London Fire Company Establishment. Steam-powered apparatuses were first introduced in the 1850s, allowing a greater quantity of water to be directed onto a fire; in the early 1930s they were superseded by versions powered by an internal combustion engine. In [[World War II]] the [[Auxiliary Fire Service]], and later the [[National Fire Service]], were established to supplement local fire services. Before 1938, there was no countrywide standard for firefighting terms, procedures, ranks, or equipment (such as hose couplings). In the month of August in 1939 with war looking very possible the Fire Service's act of 1938 came into effect. This unified Great Britain's fire service and prepared them for the German war machine. During the [[The Blitz|London Blitz]], 700 fire men and 20 fire women, as known during the time period died as a result of heavy bombing, 91 of these perished at the same time defending London. By the end of the London Blitz, 327 firefighters had lost their lives.
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