"Bikini" Fire Service Transportable Water Unit. The "Bikini" on the River Mole, propelling itself by water jet from feather weight pumps on board. The provision of water is the first essential for fire fighting. In the emergency preparations the Home Office had, therefore, to consider by what means supplies of water for this purpose could be maintained when normal supplies were for one reason or another not available. From easily accessible sites there would be no difficulty but from those where the water is inaccessible to ordinary pumps and to meet situations such as was encountered in the raid on London in December 1940, where the water failed because of the exceptionally low tide, the "Bikini" unit was developed. October 27, 1954. (Photo by Fox Photos).