fire watcher

(Military) a person who watches for fires, esp those caused by aerial bombardment

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

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Noun

fire watcher - (during World War II in Britain) someone whose duty was to watch for fires caused by bombs dropped from the air

Britain, Great Britain, U.K., UK, United Kingdom, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland - a monarchy in northwestern Europe occupying most of the British Isles; divided into England and Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland; `Great Britain' is often used loosely to refer to the United Kingdom

security guard, watchman, watcher - a guard who keeps watch

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References in periodicals archive

"A housewife called Olive volunteered as a fire watcher and wrote to her sister about putting unexploded bombs in her bicycle basket and taking them to the churchyard.

A fighting memorial; Museum opens at famous RAF Battle of Britain base

Claude Stanley Kenwood, fire watcher, of 3 Eigen Crescent, Mayhill.

The night war came to a street in Swansea; FEATURE The devastating night 24 friends, family and neighbours were killed on one Welsh street when German bombs hit 14 homes on a single night in February 1941. Geraint Thomas reports

As a teenager she was a dancer and toured the country doing pantomimes and during World War II she worked as a fire watcher, raising the alarm in emergencies.

Amy celebrates 107th birthday with pub party

So while her husband fevered over strategy in Whitehall, Clementine became a fire watcher during the Blitz.

Churchill's rock in his darkest of hours; WIFE BEHIND GREAT WARTIME LEADER

A forest fire watcher named Roger Langham, whose farm was just west of the site, climbed a lookout tower to help searchers locate the wreckage.

Map librarian finds 1966 crash site

In Second World War Coventry, Joan was a fire watcher, an air raid warden and blood donor.

Joan, 101, says: Count me in for the EU ballot!

Elizabeth wearing her fire watcher hat and hose and, strangely, a cigarette - given |to her by her photographer grandson Ron, even though she didn't smoke

Gran watched for fires from the street

During the Second World War, Percy was involved in civil defence and was the block controller of Birmingham fire watchers. He received a King's Commendation for Gallantry because he and another fire watcher, Raymond Williams, rescued two people from the caved-in cellar of a bombed building.

Back street kid fought for working classes; Carl recalls the life working class hero Percy Shurmer

At 15 I was a Fire Watcher in Dalton and had to have lectures on taKing the sandbags I was issued with to put out incendiary bombs."

Fun of an iron set pot

She had been there a number of years as a fire watcher which, it has to be said, is one of the more basic jobs on the site," he said.

'You could not ask to meet a better bunch - they were hard working and enjoyed life' Tributes paid to victims of Pembrokeshire oil refinery explosion as inquiry into cause of blast continues

I had to go first to the Cobden Hotel where the fire watcher had been tackling an incendiary and it was one of the new type, the lower half being filled with dynamite, which allows you just enough time to get busy putting it out and then explodes.

Oh, the darned nuisance of this Blitz!