WW2 led to alot of innovation in terms of tactics, techniques and technologies, I was wondering if there were any major innovations in terms of firefighting and rescue particularly in those countries facing large scale aerial bombing at various points in the war?
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This is a great question, maybe it could be covered in the homefront series as a full article.
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As is common with most wars fire suppression like many other civilian industries had technological leaps and bounds in fire suppression with some of the innovations being…
-Massive improvements to fire fighting gear most fire fighting suits of the time offered very limited protection and often were bulky and inflexible or were more often than not long leather coats coated with a fire retardant and as the war progressed the suits started to get less bulky and more flame resistant allowing firefighters to be closer to the fires they fought improving fire suppression of the fire.
-in the US, Canada and Great Britain fire apparatus was often either painted black or green and by 1942 most fire apparatus was painted bright red and this colour was reserved strictly for fire fighting which continues through to today.
-in Germany there was a two tiered system where in major cities fire fighters were paid professionals and in smaller towns and villages the fire brigades were volunteers with no paid positions and minimal training that all changed around 1937ish when all fire fighting brigades were trained to the same levels and female fire fighters worked along side their male counterparts which greatly improved not only the fire service but morale as well.
There is a lot more but these are just some improvements that were made
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