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ORGANISATION In England the brigades are organised on a County basis, with each 1974 County having its own brigade. In Scotland and Wales they are on a regional basis, with eight and three brigades respectively. Northern Ireland has a single brigade, the Northern Ireland Fire Brigade . In Northern Ireland, the members fire authority are instead appointed by ministers. It is currently planned to group the existing fire brigades in England by the Government Office Regions , creating a single main control centre for the entire regions. In order to reflect the increasing importance of roles other than putting out fires, many brigades have rebranded themselves, usually as fire and rescue'. For instance, Strathclyde Fire Brigade was renamed Strathclyde Fire and Rescue in 2004. England Wales Wales saw a reduction in the number of fire brigades in 1996, from 8 (the number of former administrative counties) to 3, made up of groups of the new principal areas. Scotland The Scottish brigades are still broadly based on the system of Regions introduced in 1975. Fire authorities are now joint boards. HISTORY During the Second World War the many local authority fire brigades had been merged to form a single National Fire Service . After the war, in 1948 , under the Fire Services Act 1947 , fire was restored to local authority before, but to the county councils and county boroughs rather than the smaller areas that had previously existed. The number of fire brigades was subsequently reduced again by mergers in 1974 / 1975 and in 1986 . In Scotland the brigades from 1948-1975 covered generally groups of counties and were Angus , Central , Fife , Glasgow , North Eastern , Perth And Kinross , South Eastern , South Western , Western . STATIONS Urban areas have professional firefighters on-call at all hours. In rural areas, there are often fire stations manned by part-time retained firefighters. In addition there are a number of independent fire brigades, such as the Peterborough volunteers, the Downe House School brigade and those run by large industrial concerns. As well as responding to fires and such like, British fire brigades also have a legal obligation (in the Fire And Rescue Services Act 2004 ) to respond to any emergency, which can pose a threat to life, and the environment. Many of these legal changes have come about as a result of the increased terrorist threat and recent industrial action. There was a Firefighter's Strike in 2003 and 2004, as part of a pay dispute. During this time, basic emergency fire cover was provided by the Armed Forces in Operation Fresco . REFERENCES
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