Brief History

Prior to the early 1940’s, fires in St. Mary’s were dealt with by the employees of The Duchy of Cornwall.

Following the outbreak of the Second World War, a Volunteer Fire Service was formed. On St. Mary’s this comprised a Dennis Fire Pump on a trailer towed by a “cut-down” Ford car, the prime use of which at the time was cutting the grass on the golf links!

In 1948 the Isles of Scilly became a Fire Authority and took over the Volunteer Fire Brigade which, by this time, was equipped with two Beresford Trailer Pumps towed by an Austin towing vehicle. The Brigade was housed in the “New Fire Station”, a building partially destroyed by bombs at Bona Vista. In 1953, the Unit was moved to a building at Porthcressa, which was replaced by the current fire station at Porthmellon in 1984.