The UK Salvage Corps

[Tom Sutton]

firesfa try http://www.a2a.org.uk/html/138-368sal.htm and check out 368/SAL/14 which lists the photographs they have. Then contact Liverpool Records Office and Local History Service and see if there is anyway of them sending you copies.

[nzkeegan]

I was member of the Liverpool Fire Salvage Corps in 1955 to 1957 It looks like I am a few years too late to post but you guys have just about covered it all. Nevertheless it brought back pleasant memories. They were a great bunch of guys and I enjoyed the short time I served there.I left to come to New Zealand and there I joined the Auckland Metropolitan Fire Brigade.
I later joined the Auckland harbor Bridge Authority who had their own fire and emergency tenders
and recovery vehicles.
I am very new to this site but find it very interesting.I will pop in from time to time and check it out.

Frank Keegan

[G]

Can anyone tell me about the Slavage Corps operatedin Liverpool and London.

There isn't much info about them on the net.

I understand that they looked like fireman drove fire engines with blue lights and hadtheir own fire stations.

But were they funded by insurance companies? What was the complete nature of their work?

I got hold of an interesting DVD recently which features footage of the London Salvage Corp in the sixties.

http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/866965/Look-At-Life-Swinging-London/Product.html

I bought it on Play.com, but i'm sure there will be some second hand ones on e-bay or the likes..........

[Perkins 121]

Response to guest

I was in the London salvage Corp from 1974 till the end in 1984.  

Any questions you have let me know and I will try and answer them.

[Meridian]

Bit late now but do I have the oldest record for a member of the London Salvage Corps. The 1871 Census shows my Great Great Grandfather's occupation as London Salvage Corps. He was living in Southwark, London.

Can email copy of Census to anyone interested.

[Chunty]

nothing in this world is new!

i attended a meeting of the national community fire safety user group recently and it was reported that an organisation exists (sorry cant remember - will have to check my notes/report) which carries out similar functions to those of the dear old salvage corps.

i'll try to find out more if i can and see if my memory is as bad as my note taking!

dave bev

That sounds familiar, about two years ago our brigade held a briefing session for each station that featured two guys from a commercial enterprise providing salvage services and how we could call them on to appropriate incidents via Fire Control. It was quite interesting in its own way and both the guys were ex-fire service and very knowledgeable, but we've never heard of them or about them since and I don't recall what they were called. Strangely when I think about it, since that time we've had a few occasions when they would have been just the blokes to call, but nobody did?

[Roy Grogan]

Liverpool Salvage Corps moved to their new headquarters in Bankhall, Liverpool not long before their paymasters the tarrif insurance companies decided that running costs outweighed recovery costs.  Their buildings compromised a headquarters that looked just like a fire station and at the rear of their drill yard was a warehouse where fire damaged goods were brought to either repackage or sell on as fire damaged goods.  Any uneasy alliance existed between the two services though Salvage crews were a great help with clearing up after fires releasing operational crews for further calls.

Their duties werent just confined to blue light jobs that ran a very thorough inspection service that had powers greater than Fire Brigade ever had... money!  If a warehouse had dangerous goods or was poorly maintained they issued a set of requirements that if not acted upon premiums went up!!  

I had the good fortune to work alongside several salvage personnel including Alec Davies who ended up on the management faculty at the Fire Service College - cracking bloke who passed on much useful advice that is still good today.  The LSC were also keen to establish causes of fire again vested interests and their expertise assisted Fire Officers in dealing with suspicious incidents.

Their vehicles looked similiar to small emergency tenders - then they moved up to Ford Transits before the Mercedes fleet came into being.  Notable incident was when a salvage tender was stolen from the forecourt by two scallywags and driven for several miles with blues and twos with Police cars chasing them - pure Benny Hill!

Merseyside Fire Museum is probably a good source of information if you wish to know more.

[Roy Grogan]

Sorry about typing errors