大象传媒

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Shortly before the war, the Fire Station was moved from the rear of the Town Hall to a new building adjacent to Grove House Gardens, next to Dog Kennel Walk in Dunstable. The town had a brand new fire engine that appeared with its predecessor in various parades. With the expansion of Air Raid Precautions, an enlarged fire station was built on the site now occupied by shops on the south side of Queen鈥檚 Way, roughly on the site of the present library. The fire service had a large 鈥渟tatic water鈥� reservoir which was fenced off but we passed it whenever we went to one of our favourite play areas. It consisted of a maze of hawthorn scrub, crab apple trees and an avenue of larger trees. There was also a walled garden with some fruit trees; this was used as allotments. The whole area stretched back as far as Kingsway.

My uncle was recruited into the Auxiliary Fire Service soon after the outbreak of war and during the 鈥淏litz鈥�, he told me that he and his colleagues took one or two appliances to Harrow or Edgware in North London every evening to await deployment, to wherever bombs had dropped and fires had started. As the war progressed, he and his colleagues in the AFS were absorbed into the full time National Fire Service.

As part of the training of the general population in 鈥淎ir Raid Precautions鈥�, the Fire Service gave demonstrations and instructed householders in the skills of tackling incendiary bombs using either a stirrup pump with water or a sand bucket.

There were also larger demonstrations given either on the forecourt of the wartime station or on the Square in High Street South. For the latter a small building was erected near the main road in front of the Methodist Church, at the precise time an aircraft would appear flying low above the High Street, I remember seeing a tiger moth; an autogiro and a Fairy Swordfish in this role. As the plane passed the Square, the small building would erupt into flames, Air Raid Wardens in their full gear of gas-suit etc, would appear onto the Square and a few moments later a fire appliance would turn up to extinguish the fire. It all went like clockwork and public belief in their Wardens and Fire Service was enhanced. It all helped public morale.

Their skill was tested to the full when Clark鈥檚 Farm (Brewer鈥檚 Hill Farm) caught fire around one wartime Christmas. The farm pond did not contain sufficient water to tackle the blaze so lorries with large canvas tanks on the back were used to transport water from hydrants in High Street North and Houghton Road. Brewer鈥檚 Hill Road was rather bumpy; so much water was lost as the lorries went over the railway level crossing and all the way to the farm. The Fire Service managed to save the farmhouse but many of the other buildings and some animals were lost.

As the water mains would have become useless if damaged in an air raid, there was a need for water supplies other than the usual fire hydrants. This was supplied by 鈥淪tatic Water Tanks鈥� that were strategically placed at various points within the town. In particular I remember one in Albion Street outside the Methodist Church premises, near the junction with Prince鈥檚 Street. I passed this each time I went to and from school. It must have been about 8 feet wide, 24 feet long and have a depth of water between 3 and 4 feet. It was covered for safety purposes with a strong metal mesh and the whole thing was painted black.

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