Museum Of Fire

We visited the Museum Of Fire this morning which is on the site of Edinburgh's first fire station.

The museum is free to visit and the building is gorgeous with a dozen or so fire engines from different eras.

We arrived just as a tour was about to start so we tagged along and as an ex-fireman talked us through the design flaws of the past iterations of fire engine up until today's version.

We learned that Edinburgh had the first red fire engine in the world and insurance companies ran the fire brigades in the very beginning, so if you were insured by a different insurance company from the brigagde that arrived at your house first, they'd just watch it burn and even try to prevent your company from putting it out.

The early engines were pulled by horses and when the fire bell rang, they'd tilt their heads which would release their harnesses, push through the doors and walk into the harness which would pull the engine all by themselves.

The rest of the museum was filled with old plaques, uniforms and models.

I was really impressed with the whole museum and the friendly staff. It's definetly worth a visit if you're in the city!