The World Firefighters Games was initiated by an American entrepreneur and a committee of international firefighters, whose coming together led to the 1st World Firefighters Games in Aukland NewZealand in 1990. This inaugral event was hailed as a great success placing the WFG firmly on the international map, attracting thousands of athletes and their families from all over the world.
The second WFG were held in Las Vegas in 1992 and thus the stage was set to host this event on a biennial basis. 1994 saw the ownership of the event passing to a committee of firefighters in Perth, Western Australia who hosted yet another fantastic WFG in this same year. The W. Australia WFG Governing Body have continued to drive forward this event which has seen the mantle of the games being hosted at the following international venues:
| 1996 – Edmonton, Canada |  |
| 1998 – Durban, South Africa |  |
| 2000 – Mantes, France |  |
| 2002 – Christchurch, New Zealand |  |
| 2004 – Sheffield, England |  |
| 2006 – Hong Kong, China |  |
The Liverpool World Firefighters Games 2008 will be staged from 25th August- 3rd September 2008. Liverpool is also set to be the European Capital of Culture in 2008, with WFG08 playing a major role in the Capital of Culture calendar. This will give WFG unprecedented access to brand new state of the art international sporting venues such as the Liverpool Echo Arena. The Games will feature 60 sporting events over a period of 10 days attracting in excess of 5000 competitors from all over the world. The Games include a variety of sports and whilst the emphasis is on participation, competition is fierce and the last time the Games were held in the UK (Sheffield) two British national records were broken.
The Games lasts for a period of seven to ten days and are self-financing with any surplus being reinvested in local charities.