Fires Were Started is a British film

Cinema of the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom has had a major influence on modern cinema. The first moving pictures developed on celluloid film were made in Hyde Park, London in 1889 by William Friese Greene, a British inventor, who patented the process in 1890. It is generally regarded that the British film industry...

 written and directed by Humphrey Jennings

Humphrey Jennings

Frank Humphrey Sinkler Jennings was an English documentary filmmaker and one of the founders of the Mass Observation organization...

, filmed in documentary style showing the lives of firefighter

Firefighter

Firefighters are rescuers extensively trained primarily to put out hazardous fires that threaten civilian populations and property, to rescue people from car incidents, collapsed and burning buildings and other such situations...

s through the Blitz

The Blitz

The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...

 in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. The film uses actual firefighters (including Cyril Demarne

Cyril Demarne

Cyril Thomas Demarne OBE was a British firefighter. He served in London during the Second World War, throughout the Blitz. He was later involved in establishing aviation firefighting units in Australasia and in Beirut. In retirement, he wrote several books based on his wartime...

) rather than professional actors.

The film was also released under the title I Was a Fireman.

Production

Exterior shots were filmed on location. Interior scenes were shot at Pinewood Studios

Pinewood Studios

Pinewood Studios is a major British film studio situated in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, approximately west of central London. The studios have played host to many productions over the years from huge blockbuster films to television shows to commercials to pop promos.The purchase of Shepperton...

.

Critical reception

Film critics mostly praised the film for its realism and documentary value, despite its reconstructions. Dilys Powell

Dilys Powell

Elizabeth Dilys Powell was a British journalist, author and film critic.She was born into a middle class family in Bridgnorth, Shropshire. Her mother was Mary Jane Lloyd; her father, Thomas Powell, a bank manager...

, of the Sunday Times declared its authenticity to be 'moving and terrifying'.