History of firefighting

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Firefighter from Warsaw wearing equipment for breathing in smoke ca. 1870

The history of organized firefighting began in ancient Rome while under the rule of the first Roman Emperor Augustus.[1] Prior to that, Ctesibius, a Greek citizen of Alexandria, developed the first fire pump in the third century BC, which was later improved upon in a design by Hero of Alexandria in the first century BC.[2]

Ancient Rome

Roman Emperor Nero formed a group of slaves, Vigiles, in AD 60 to combat fires using bucket brigades and pumps, as well as poles, hooks and even ballistae to tear down buildings in advance of the flames. The Corps Vigiles patrolled the streets of Rome to watch for fires and served as a police
force. The later brigades consisted of hundreds of volunteers, all ready for action. When there was a fire, the men would line up to the nearest water source and pass buckets hand in hand to the fire.

Rome suffered a number of serious fires, most notably the fire on 19 July AD 64 which eventually destroyed two thirds of Rome.

Early English

In

fire insurance marks
.

There is an urban legend that insurance brigades would only fight fires at buildings the company insured. This claim has been debunked.[3]

The key breakthrough in firefighting arrived in the 17th century with the first fire engines. Manual pumps, rediscovered in Europe after 1500 (allegedly used in

Jan Van der Heyden's workshop developed the fire hose. Constructed of flexible leather and coupled every 50 feet (15 m) with brass
fittings. The length remains the standard to this day in mainland Europe whilst in the UK the standard length is either 23m or 25m.

The

fire engine was further developed by the Dutch inventor, merchant and manufacturer, John Lofting
(1659–1742) who had worked with Jan Van der Heyden in Amsterdam. Lofting moved to London in or about 1688, became an English citizen and patented (patent number 263/1690) the "Sucking Worm Engine" in 1690. There was a glowing description of the firefighting ability of his device in The London Gazette of 17 March 1691, after the issue of the patent.

A helmet used by the superintendent of the Auckland Fire Board till 1874

The British Museum has a print showing Lofting's fire engine at work in London, the engine being pumped by a team of men. In the print three fire plaques of early insurance companies are shown, no doubt indicating that Lofting collaborated with them in firefighting. A later version of what is believed to be one of his fire engines has been lovingly restored by a retired firefighter, and is on show in Marlow Buckinghamshire where John Lofting moved in 1700. Patents only lasted for fourteen years and so the field was open for his competitors after 1704.

Richard Newsham of Bray in Berkshire (just 8 miles from Lofting) produced and patented an improved engine in 1721 (Royal Patent Office 1721 patent #439 and 1725 patent #479) and soon dominated the fire engine market in England. Pulled as a cart to the fire, these manual pumps were manned by teams of 4 to 12 men and could deliver up to 160 gallons per minute (12 L/s) at up to 120 feet (36 m). Newsham himself died in 1743 but his company continued making fire engines under other managers and names into the 1770s. The next major development in fire engine design in England was made by Hadley, Simpkin & Lott co. in 1792 with a larger and much improved style of hand pumped engine which could be pulled to a fire by horses.

United States

Firefighters onboard the USS Forrestal in 1967.

In 1631,

Philadelphia.[4]

The United States did not have government-run fire departments until around the time of the

insurance companies paid brigades to save buildings.[5] Underwriters also employed their own Salvage Corps in some cities. The first known female firefighter, Molly Williams, took her place with the men on the dragropes during the blizzard of 1818 and pulled the pumper to the fire through the deep snow.

Fighting a fire in New York City, 1869 illustration

On 1 April 1853, Cincinnati, Ohio featured the first career fire department made up of 100% full-time employees. In 2015, 70% of firefighters in the United States were volunteers. Only 4% of calls regarded actual fires, while 64% regarded medical aid, and 8% were false alarms.[6]

Canada

The first organized fire department in Canada was created in Halifax, Nova Scotia, originally named the Union Fire Club. The next companies to become established in the Maritimes in the 1780s, were conceived as a mutual insurance and protection organization, which followed the governors requested rules and regulations.[7]

Modern development

The world's oldest Firefighter Corporation takes location in Lisbon, Portugal, today called "Regimento de Sapadores Bombeiros de Lisboa" was created in 1395 with the name "Serviço de incendios de Lisboa"

The first fire brigades in the modern sense were created in France in the early 18th century. In 1699, a man with bold commercial ideas, François du Mouriez du Périer (grandfather of French Revolution general Charles François Dumouriez), solicited an audience with King Louis XIV. Greatly interested in Jan Van der Heyden's invention, he successfully demonstrated the new pumps and managed to convince the king to grant him the monopoly of making and selling "fire-preventing portable pumps" throughout the kingdom of France. François du Mouriez du Périer offered 12 pumps to the City of Paris, and the first Paris Fire Brigade, known as the Compagnie des gardes-pompes (literally the "Company of Pump Guards"), was created in 1716. François du Mouriez du Périer was appointed directeur des pompes de la Ville de Paris ("director of the City of Paris's pumps"), i.e. chief of the Paris Fire Brigade, and the position stayed in his family until 1760. In the following years, other fire brigades were created in the large French cities. Around that time appeared the current French word pompier ("firefighter"), whose literal meaning is "pumper." On March 11, 1733 the French government decided that the interventions of the fire brigades would be free of charge. This was decided because people always waited until the last moment to call the fire brigades to avoid paying the fee, and it was often too late to stop fires. From 1750 on, the French fire brigades became para-military units and received uniforms. In 1756 the use of a protective helmet for firefighters was recommended by King Louis XV, but it took many more years before the measure was actually enforced on the ground.

London Auxiliary Fire Fighting Services members during an exercise circa 1939

In

Boss Tweed, head of the notorious Tammany Hall
political machine, who got his start in politics as a member of the Americus Engine Company Number 6 ("The Big Six") in New York City.

Sapeurs-Pompiers ("Sappers-Firefighters"), from the French Army
. Created under the Commandant of Engineers in 1810, the company was organized after a fire at the ballroom in the Austrian Embassy in Paris which injured several dignitaries.

In the UK, the

watermen
as firefighters and provided them with uniforms and arm badges showing the company to which they belonged.

However, the first organised municipal fire brigade in the world was established in

James Braidwood. London followed in 1832 with the London Fire Engine Establishment
.

On April 1, 1853, the Cincinnati Fire Department became the first full-time paid career fire department in the United States, and the first in the world to use steam fire engines.[9]

The first horse-drawn steam engine for fighting fires was invented in England in 1829, but it was not accepted in structural firefighting until 1860. It continued to be ignored for another two years afterwards. Self-propelled steam-powered fire engines were introduced in 1903, followed by internal combustion engine fire apparatuses which began to be produced as early as 1905, leading to the decline and disappearance of horse-drawn, hand-pumped, and steam-powered fire engines by the mid 1920s.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Ancient Rome: From the Early Republic to the Assassination of Julius Caesar, M. Dillon Accessed: 10/6/2012
  2. ISBN 9781437744729
    – via Google Books.
  3. ^ Sillitoe, Paul J. (December 2022). "Did Insurance Fire Brigades let uninsured buildings burn?". tomscott.com. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Firefighting In Colonial America". Fire Fighter Central. Archived from the original on 2007-06-10. Retrieved 2007-07-15.
  5. ^ "A Fire Pro - History of Fire Fighting". www.afirepro.com. Archived from the original on 2017-10-13. Retrieved 2017-05-25.
  6. ^ The United States Fire Service Fact Sheet
  7. ^ "History — 1600 to 1800". Canadian Fire Fighters Museum. Retrieved 2020-01-24.
  8. ^ a b "A Brief History of Firefighting - WindsorFire.com". WindsorFire.com. 2006-01-22. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
  9. ^ "History - Fire". City of Cincinnati.

References

Further reading

External links

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