The mid 1970s saw a number of innovative appliance designs come into play as the London Fire Brigade adapted to an ever changing and more Health and Safety conscious working environment. This adapted Commer van was introduced to meet the need of an increasing number of incidents which involved toxic or dangerous chemicals, requiring special procedures to deal with them and to decontaminate the firefighters involved in dealing with a chemical spillage or those involved in a fire. Seen here at Southwark, the London Fire Brigade's main training school located in SE1.