How did fire fighting begin?

Thursday, May 4 was International fire fighters day. Do you know how firefighting began?

Firefighting is the act of extinguishing or preventing the spread of unwanted fires, in order to protect human lives, property, and the environment.

Man has always known that fire can be his friend and servant, and can also be a great destroyer. Primitive man, however, didn't have the problem of fighting fires as we have, simply because he didn't live in houses that were grouped together- in other words, in villages, towns, and cities.

But when men began to live together in large groups, they had to concern themselves with the problem of fighting fires. And so, long before Christ (in fact, many centuries before), fire brigades were organised. They existed in many cities throughout the world. The ancient Romans had fire brigades to protect the city, and used slaves as fire fighters.

By the way, the Romans also developed the first means of throwing a continuous stream of water. Roman firemen used axes, blankets, buckets, ladders, and poles! In the Middle Ages there was some organised fire fighting here and there, but it was not very efficient.

Fire fighting as we know it was started in England. It came about because fire-insurance companies were organised, and they, of course, were interested in cutting down the loss from fires and preventing their spread. The officials of London hadn't done much about this problem, so the insurance companies organised fire brigades of their own.

Probably the first such brigade was organised in 1722, and then others followed. These insurance companies would place fire marks on the buildings they insured, and probably didn't bother too much with other buildings. In 1833 the first organised fire fighting system for the city of London was set up.

In the United States, as in most parts of the world, before the local authorities ( of the city or town) set up fire brigades, the citizens themselves would organise volunteer fire fighters. In fact, the job of fighting fires is still done mostly by volunteers. There are about one million fire fighters in the United States- and only one out of ten is a paid fireman working full time!

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