History of Fire Fighting - Free Essay Example

Firefighting can be described simply as the act of putting out a fire. Firefighters practice firefighting as a profession, by doing this they save lives and prevent the damage of property by fire. Fires can pose extremely dangerous situations if uncontrolled as it posses more than just the apparent risk of causing burns. Combustion of materials which occurs in fires cause smoke which reduces visibility and may cause chocking, reduced oxygen levels which may cause suffocation.

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Firefighting has its origins in the ancient Roman empire under the leadership of emperor Augustus. The Roman emperor Augustus is said to have installed fire watchmen around Rome during the 24 BC who kept a look out for fires and extinguished the fires that were out of control. The practice that originated in ancient Rome since spread throughout the rest of the world and by the industrial age almost all major towns had fire watchmen who once spotted an out of control fire sounded an alarm. Fires in the times of ancient Rome up to about the industrial age were mainly fueled by wooden materials hence making an axe an important tool to firefighting as it would be used to cut off the fueling material and starve the fire. Since the conception of firefighting

The firefighting brigade is however attributed to Marcus Lincinus Crassus, who was born around the 115 BC year. Marcus Lincinus Crassus took advantage of the rudumentary firefighting techniques that existed then, ancient Rome then did not have a firefighting brigade he assembled his own firefighting brigade of 500 men. At the sight of alarm caused by fire Marcus Lincinus Crassus and his brigade rushed to the burning property and agreed on a price so as to extinguish the fire, in the event that the the property's owner did not agree on the price with Marcus Lincinus Crassus the brigade would simply just watch the property go up in flames and later on Marcus Lincinus Crassus would discuss buying the land at a low fee. The then Roman emperor Nero in AD 60 implemented a similar brigade to serve Rome.

Firefighting was implemented next in the rest of Europe after the ancient Roman empire. The french king Saint Louis in the year 1254 made a royal decree that created the 'guet bougeoiois' which is loosely translated to Burgess watch. The royal decree passed by king Saint Louis allowed the citizens of France to form their own citizens watch and fight crime and fires as the citizens of France. During the reign of King Charles ix Paris was the largest city in Europe and the king disbanded the citizens watch and instead strengthened the kings Night watches.

London, United Kingdom's capital had suffered the tragic effect of fires before the implementation of organized fire fighting efforts, most notable was the great fire of London which occurred in 1666. The great fire of London started at bakers shop on pudding street and spread literally like wild fire consuming any and all the structures within a 5 km2 area (about 2 miles2 ). After the great fire of London which lead to great loses insurance companies set up private fire brigades in order to watch over their client's property and prevent as great a loss as was suffered during the great fire of London. The private fire fighting brigades would however only extinguish the flames from a building or property that was insured.

A breakthrough in firefighting came in the 17th with the discovery and implementation of the very first fire engines using manual pumps as the force pumps lacked long and flexible hose and thus had short distances of coverage. Hans Hautshc a German inventor created a suction force pump, the first ever invented along with the pump Hans Hautshc combined it with a flexible hose. Jan Van Der Heyden later on in the year 1672 developed a leather hose pipe that was reinforced with brass fittings after every 15 meters, The standard length of the hose pipe is still used as the standard in mainland Europe but in the UK it is 23-25 meters. The United Kingdom's government was not involved in firefighting efforts up until the year 1865 when all the brigades came under a new system the London Metropolitan Fire Brigade.

In America the first fire regulation was established in the year 1648 following the major fire of Boston which occurred a few years before in the year 1631 in the then New Amsterdam which has since been renamed to New York. The fire regulations came along with fire Wardens and was the first form of fire departments in North America.