In 1949, the little village of Kingston was settling down after the war. Bread, Jam & clothing were off the ration book and a couple of events changed the ways of this village. The first event was the introduction of a mains water supply, the second was the burning down of a parish councillor’s shed! Mr Bill Royle felt he should be able to do something, in the 20 minutes it took for the closest fire appliance to arrive. He approached the chief fire officer, through the parish council with his request to use the fire hydrants to tackle any out break in Kingston. The Chief sent a reply stating that untrained people should not be squirting water on fires as they may cause more damage. this instantly prompted the reply WELL YOU BETTER TRAIN US THEN! This impressed the chief who agreed to equip and train the fire fighters.
The men started off with a hand cart containing a hand operated pump and a few lengths of hose. Some progress has been made over the years with the provision of better training and equipment, yet because we have trouble providing a daytime crew we remain voluntary. The current crew of4 members, are fully trained by Devon And Somerset Fire And Rescue service and have the use of a Iveco Rapid Intervention Vehicle.
