A history of Duxford Airfield RFFS

Originally Compiled by Station Officer Rob Unwin

1991- 2014 The DAS Fire Service also around this time acquired from the BAA the first of what became a large collection of Spearhead RIV’s with eventually 8 of such being used, some for spares and some operationally. These were followed by two Nubian Major Foam Tenders.. The Imperial War Museum originally started a Fire Service at Duxford due to a requirement to provide cover for ADAS to carry out daily photo mapping flights using a pair of Piper Aztec aircraft. An ex Royal Air Force Range Rover was purchased for this role, which was manned by what was then Warders. The DAS were not able to cover during the week due to the members working in their full time employment. A Bedford water tender was later donated to the IWM by Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue and this was used to provide domestic cover for the site. Along with the ex RAF Range Rover for airfield cover these appliances formed the beginnings of the current Fire Service at Duxford. Up until the late 1990’s / early 2000’s - the DAS volunteers still provided weekend cover for the airfield, with the IWM staff covering the weekdays as well as domestic cover, by 2003 the number of volunteers had started to decline and the volunteer side of the fire service came to an end within a couple of years after this By now the IWM fire service was comprised of staff from the 4 main watches (whichever watch was on days from White, Blue, Red and Green) plus the Day watch for day to day manning, for event days all staff not on nights would be on duty This system continued until 2014 - Security at the IWM was outsourced and the RFFS became a whole time service in it’s own right - rather than a part of the security department