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Joined the fire service in 1971 as London Fire Brigade's youngest ever firefighter, serving at several fire stations in London's central 'A' Division. Also assigned an LFB Fire Investigator based in 'C' Division and covering the entire North of London
Joined Kent Fire and Rescue Service in 2008, serving in the Technical Fire Safety team.
Served a series of research detachments from London to several US fire departments, studying firefighting tactics, high-rise command systems and ventilation on the fireground -
New York City 7th Division South Bronx (Eng.45 Lad.58 Squad 1 & Div.7 Chief) 1975, 1976, 1977
Long Island NY volunteer firefighter 1976-77 West Islip FD; FDNY Rescue 1; Boston FD; Chicago FD Rescue 1; San Francisco FD; Los Angeles FD; LA County FD; Las Vegas FD; Seattle FD; Phoenix FD; Miami FD; Metro Dade FD; Dallas FD - 3 months detachment in 1990
Paul Grimwood introduced Rosander and Giselsson's firefighting tactics using pulsing water-fog and 'gas cooling' methods of fire control to the UK in 1984, with several trips to Sweden, including Stockholm FD, to train in the innovative techniques. These methods of fire control were trialled at three fire stations in the capital between 1984-1994 before a national roll-out across the UK from 1998.
In 1999 Paul first introduced the 3D Firefighting concepts in his firefighting manual Flashover and Nozzle Techniques (published in seven languages) bringing '3D Firefighting' to firefighters across the globe.
In 2003 and 2007 the 3D Firefighting methods were further described in two additional books published with Paul and his co-authors, Koen Desmet, Ed Hartin, John McDonough and Shan Raffel, describing in some detail the Swedish firefighting tactics that changed the face of European compartment firefighting from the 1980s onwards.
Author's Royalties donated in aid of
Katie Piper Burns Foundation