A national decoy authority headed by Colonel John Fisher Turner was set up in July 1940, and following earlier experiments in Glasgow and Sheffield, a system of urban lighting decoys was set up similar to those used for military installations. These urban decoys were to be known as "Civil" sites; Civil QL for urban lighting simulation, and Civil QF for dummy fires. "Q" - sites (which took their title from the Royal Navy's use of "Q" - ships; warships disguised as merchant vessels) were equipped with assorted electrical and pyrotechnical apparatus to simulate the flare given from furnace doors, steel-making, railway marshalling yards, and light given off by inefficient blackout precautions.
Other sites simulated small fires started by incendiary bombs, with oil-storage area fire simulation being developed at Greystoke castle, near Penrith (The oil-storage area bombing decoys were designed to be operated by the Petroleum Authority, and were not as successful as the other types of decoy site, for a variety of reasons - notably disagreement over staffing.). A further variation on fire decoy sites was the "SF", or "Special Fires" sites. A larger, longer-burning type of fire was provided at these sites - known as "Starfish" sites - to draw incendiary bombs, and hopefully as a consequence the full enemy payload, from falling on the larger conurbations and defence installations during the blitz.
Ultimately, the civil decoy sites were staffed largely by civilian personnel from the works they were covering for. This was not always the case, though, and some sites were staffed by such diverse bodies as the police, the RAF Barrage Balloon Detachment, anti-aircraft ops. rooms, and the Civil Defence department. Navy and Army decoys were staffed by sailors and soldiers, and the RAF decoys were staffed by selected RAF ground-crew.