Wiltshire Fire Brigade was one of the 141 brigades formed on 1 April 1948 as a result of the Fire Services Act 1947. The various individual brigades were absorbed, with some villages losing their units and having fire cover provided by a nearby station within the authority. Wiltshire's firefighters have also been called upon to assist in serious incidents outside the county. During the Second World War, crews were deployed to Birmingham, Bath, Bristol, London and Plymouth, while crews from Stratton, in their ever-changing role, responded to the serious flooding in Gloucestershire in July 2007. Firefighting in Wiltshire is published to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the formation of Wiltshire Fire Brigade, but it is also a pictorial record of the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century brigades and the equally important private, industrial and military units which have provided valuable services in protecting life and property from fire in the county.