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The town was renamed Lisburn after again being almost destroyed, this time accidentally by "The Great Fire" which started on Sunday 20th April 1707.
The oldest existing buildings in the city at the present time were built after this date, including Christ Church Cathedral, the Assembly Rooms of 1708 and Friends School built in 1774. The administrative headquarters of the Northern Ireland Fire Authority was established in Lisburn in 1950 and the Northern Ireland Fire Brigade continues to have its headquarters and central control room located there today.
The first steps towards the establishment of a fire service for Lisburn were taken by the Town Commissioners in 1828, following the introduction of a local improvement act to look after the watching lighting and cleansing of the town initially provided Firefighting provisions at Lisburn.
Following the enactment of the 1854 Towns Improvement (Ireland) Act, a total of fifteen Town Commissioners were appointed in Lisburn during 1874 and included in their duties was the management of the town's water service, markets, cleaning and lighting, parks, cemeteries and fire brigade. The Town Commissioners in 1875 decided to reorganise the fire brigade and employ a Superintendent to be responsible for the maintenance of the fire engines, hose and standpipes. He in turn would recruit and train firemen to have a knowledge of firefighting and the town water supply system.
The Commissioners received a letter from Mr William John Knox offering himself as the Superintendent of the Fire Brigade setting out rules and general orders for carrying out the object of the brigade. He was appointed to the position in July 1875 with an annual salary of thirty pounds. Nine firemen were also appointed; They were named as R Charters, Richard Murray, Robert Bailey, Thomas Harding, Thomas Wright, Burley, Samuel, Hewitt and Richard Knox, the son of the Superintendent.
Unfortunately Superintendent Wm Knox served only three years before his death, his place being taken by his son Richard Knox, who was appointed to the position in December 1878.
On March 1879, Sir Richard Wallace presented to the fire brigade committee a new manual fire engine named 'William John Knox' after the first Superintendent.
Superintendent Richard Knox resigned in June 1897 and William Megran, who had been a fireman in the Lisburn Brigade for several years filled his place. His title was changed to Captain of the Fire Brigade, and Benjamin Leonard was appointed as the Vice-Captain.
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In October 1884 a new fire station, with a house attached for the Superintendent, was opened at Railway Street in the grounds of the Court House.
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On 10 January 1910 a fire occurred resulting in the deaths of an entire family of six. The Fegan family consisting of Father, Mother and four children aged eight, six, four and two respectively were all lost. The fire was discovered by Sergeant Torrens and another constable in the Royal Irish Constabulary while on patrol at 3.40am. In his report to the Fire Brigade Committee Captain Megran stated:
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During 1920 the riots which covered most of Ireland, the town of Lisburn also suffered very badly after Inspector Swanzy of the Royal Irish Constabulary was murdered in the town by the IRA. Many large fires were started especially in the Longstone, Chapel Hill and Bow Street areas. At the height of the riots the fire brigade under Captain Megran was stretched to the limit, and assistance had to be requested from Belfast. Included among the many fires which took place were, the Hibernian Hall, the Parochial Hall, the Comrades Club Market Square, Dan Mooney's Public House Chapel hill, the County Down Arms Hotel and Donaghy's Boot Factory. On 23 August 1920 the destruction increased as the day continued. By nightfall the situation was completely out of control and the scene was described in a press report at the time.
Vernor McAfee was appointed Captain of the Lisburn Fire Brigade on 26th March 1936, with Samuel McCabe as his Vice-Captain. The brigade strength in 1936 now was: Captain, Vice Captain and seven firemen who were John Orr, William Clarke, Edward Murphy, Alexander Gowdy, RJ McAllister, Hugh Stephenson and Hugh McCucheon.
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Lisburn Fire Brigade received their new Motor fire engine DZ 6866
after an order was placed through Issac Agnew Ltd Belfast for a Dennis engine at
a cost of £1183.15.0d. John Kelly from Windsor Terrace Lisburn was employed as a
driver for the new engine.
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On 8th May 1941 at a special meeting of the Lisburn Urban
District Council the Chairman Mr D Barbour who had visited Belfast after the
Blitz on May 4th gave a vivid account of the Lisburn AFS who had been sent into
the city during a heavy air raid.
He had been impressed by the Lisburn units who in his words were'.......
"One of the finest units in Northern Ireland."
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When the war ended in 1945, steps were taken to return fire services to local control and it was decided that a number of fire authorities, with local council representation would be set up, to administer all fire services in Northern Ireland. The Lisburn brigade was to become part of the Southern Fire Authority with its Headquarters in Shillington Street Portadown under Chief Officer T.J Browne.
In 1950 the Northern, Western, and Southern fire authorities were amalgamated into one brigade to form the Northern Ireland Fire Authority with it's administrative headquarters in Lisburn under Fire Force Commander George Murphy.
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The new fire station in Antrim Street Lisburn was a one storey, three bay station with office and lecture room facilities. It was officially opened by the Minister of Home Affairs, W.B.Maginnis on 20th October 1950.
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Due to lack of space for training at the fire station in Antrim Street, the Lisburn fire crews regularly made their way to the Fire Force Headquarters in Castle Street, where a training tower had been constructed in 1952. The siren for calling out the Lisburn fire crews was fitted to the top of the tower and operated from the control room.
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As the period of civil unrest continued into the 1970's terrorist bombers attacked the Lisburn station area on many occasions. One such incident was at the Woodburn House Hotel, Suffolk Dunmurry on 9th November 1971. At about eight o'clock in the evening a fifty pound bomb fitted with an anti-handling device exploded. Fire soon spread throughout the building, and despite the efforts of the Lisburn personnel, assisted by crews from Belfast, the hotel was completely destroyed.
On 16th November 1978, appliances from Lisburn and Cadogan Station in Belfast attended an incident just inside Lisburn stations' area at the Bass Charrington Brewery on the Glen Road Belfast. Upon the Lisburn crews arrival they found that a terrorist bomb had exploded in a spirit warehouse with a serious fire developing. After calling for assistance, crews were making their way into the building with water jets when a second device detonated injuring many firefighters.
Sub.Officer Wesley Orr BEM, who had been leading the crews into the fire suffered the most serious injuries which resulted in his death shortly after being conveyed to hospital.
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A new Wholtime/Retained fire station was built at Prince William Rd. Lisburn replacing the Antrim St. station.
Retained crew receiving CFOs Commendation
The new fire station in Prince William Road also housed the brigade's emergency standby control room. Should the main control room situated at the Brigade H.Q. building in Seymour Street become unsuitable in the event of a major failure, a fallback mobilising system can be manned and operated by control staff.
