MODULE VII
FIRE FIGHTING OPERATIONS
AND EXTINGUISHMENT
FIRE FIGTHING OPERATIONS AND
EXTINGUISHMENT
Firefighting is an activity intended to save lives and property. It is one of the most
important emergency services in a community. Fire fighters battle fires that break
out in homes, factories, office buildings, shops, and other places. Fire fighters risk
their lives to save people and protect property from fires. The people who work as
fire fighters also help others who are involved in many kinds of emergencies
besides fires. For example, fire fighters rescue people who may be trapped in
cars or vehicles after an accident. They aid victims of such disasters as typhoons,
floods, landslides, and earthquakes. Before the advent of modern firefighting
techniques, fires often destroyed whole settlements. When a fire broke but, all
the people in the community rushed to the scene to help. Today, firefighting
organizations in most industrialized nations have well-trained men and women
and a variety of modern firefighting equipment.
HISTORY OF FIRE FIGHTING
Most fire services around the world were formed after a major fire made
people realize that lives and property would have been saved if they had had a
proper body of people trained to fight fires. One of the first organized fire fighting
forces was established in Rome, about 500 B.C. The first fire fighters were Roman
slaves who, under the command of the city's magistrates, were stationed on the
walls and the gates of Rome. These units were called Familia Publica. However,
this system was not very effective, probably because the slaves had no choice in
whether they fought fires or not. In A.D. 6, after an enormous fire devastated Rome,
the Emperor Augustus created the Vigiles, a fire fighting force of 7,000 men that
was divided into seven regiments. Like many of today's fire services, the vigiles had
the power to inspect buildings to check for fire risks, and could punish property
owners whose negligence led to fires
The vigiles' fire fighting equipment included pumps, squirts, siphons,
buckets, and ladders. Wicker mats and wet blankets were used for rescue and
salvage work. The Romans developed advanced fire fighting equipment. But
when the empire fell, much of this technology was lost for centuries.
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, European cities and towns became
disorganized and nobody coordinated firefighting. Some people even thought that
prayer was the best way to control fires. Slowly, however, some fire laws evolved.
In many cities people were required to put out their cooking and home fires at
night. In some towns, thatched roofs were forbidden and night watchmen were
employed to raise the alarm if they discovered a fire.
Organized fire services in Europe were usually only formed after hugely
destructive fires. The Great Fire of London in 1666 led to the development of
fire insurance industries in England. These companies marked their insured
properties with metal badges called fire marks and formed private fire brigades
to protect those properties. Each company's brigade attended only those
premises bearing the company's own fire mark. There was much competition,
and occasionally rival fire brigades even obstructed each other in their
firefighting efforts. It was not until the 1800's that London insurance
companies began to cooperate and a single London Fire Engine
Establishment was formed. The new service fought fires in any premises
within the London area.
Serious blazes also caused death and destruction elsewhere in Europe,
and rulers began to realize that it was necessary to have organized forces to
deal with fires. In France, groups of citizens kept watch for outbreaks of fire,
and regulations-controlled rescue operations. In the 1600's, a number of
serious fires spread terror throughout Paris. The king of France bought 12
pumps, and a private fire service was established. In 1750, the company of
firemen was mostly taken over by the army, but fires continued to ravage the
city and firefighting efforts were not always effective. In 1810, the emperor
Napoleon attended a ball at the Austrian Embassy. A candle set the curtains
ablaze, and the fire spread quickly, causing a dreadful panic. After this fire,
Napoleon ordered the creation of the Battalion de Sapeurs Pompiers and the
French Fire Brigade was born.
Better equipment for getting water to fires and for fighting fires was developed in the
1500's. Tools included syringes, which squirted water, but most people relied on bucket brigades,
relays of men passing buckets of water. The problems with bucket brigades were that many men
were needed, it was very tiring work, and it was not very efficient--buildings often burned to the
ground. In 1672, an uncle and nephew in Amsterdam, both called Jan van der Heide, invented a
flexible hose, which could be joined together to form a long pipe. Later, the same men invented a
pump to deliver water through the hose, and firefighting became much more efficient. In many
places around the world, fire pumps were first drawn to fires by horses or even by people.
Warning bells enabled people to get out of the way when the pumps were rushing to a fire. The
German company Daimler invented the first petrol-driven pump in 1885, but the pump still had to
be taken to fires by horses. Petrol-powered fire engines were introduced in the early 1900's, but
many countries were slow to change from horse-drawn pumps. Although today's fire services
have a range of modern equipment, fire can be just as dangerous now as it was thousands of
years ago.
300 BC – CTESIBIUS OF ALEXANDRIA
INVENTS THE FIRST WATER PUMP FOR
FIGHTING FIRES.
100 BC Hero of
Alexandria improves
upon Ctesibius’ water
pump designs.
100 BC – ~50 BC –
Marcus Licinius Crassus
creates the first “Fire
Brigade” in Rome.
However, this serves as a
scheme for him to take
advantage of property
owners. His 500-man
brigade would only put out
fires if the owner agreed to
sell the property to
Crassus at ridiculously low
rates.
60 AD – Emperor Nero
takes Crassus’ idea and
forms the Vigiles to
combat fires without
extortion. Hundreds
strong they used bucket
brigades, pumps, poles,
hooks, and ballistae to
combat fires and prevent
them from spreading
even if it meant tearing
down parts of buildings.
• 1254 – King Saint Louis of France created the guet bourgeois a citizen night watch to combat fires
and crime.
• 1631 – The first fire regulations in America were established.
• 1637 – The English firm Ryley and Mabb created the first fire insurance pool.
• 1648 – New Amsterdam Governor Peter Stuyvesant appointed 4 men as fire wardens. These men,
and others patrolled the streets at night carrying wooden rattles to warn citizens of fire and to form
bucket brigades.
• 1658 – Dutch shoemakers craft 250 leather buckets to be used by the firefighters’ bucket brigade
in New Amsterdam.
• ~1666 – In the wake of the Great Fire of London insurance companies form private brigades to
protect insured properties.
• 1667 – The London City Council established the first fire insurance company, “The Fire Office.”
This insurance company employed Thames watermen as firefighters who had uniforms and
badges.
• 1672 – Jan Van der Heyden, a
Dutch artist, and inventor,
created the first fire hose from
leather and brass with fittings at
50-foot intervals. This remains
the standard length for
firehoses in mainland Europe.
• 1699 – François du
Mouriez du Périer
convinced King
Louis XIV to allow
him to have a
monopoly on
making and selling
fire pumps in
France.
• 1678 – The first fire engine company in Colonial America went into service,
captained by Thomas Atkins. These men become the first paid-per-call
firefighters in America.
1716 – François du
Mouriez du Périer gave
1690-1691 – John Lofting, a 12 pumps, of der
Dutch inventor, who had Heyden’s design, to
Paris, forming
worked with der Heyden the Compagnie des
created the first fire engine gares-pompes, or literally
calling it the “Sucking Worm the “Company of Pump
Engine”. It required a small Guards. Creating the
team of men to operate. French word for
firefighter, Pompier, or
literally “pumper”.
• 1718 – Boston organizes the
“Boston Fire Society”. This
becomes the first mutual aid
organization in the US with
members organizing to protect
their properties from fire and
crime.
• 1721 – Richard Newsham
patented and produced an
improved engine that could be
pulled by a cart to the fire and
needed a team of 4 to 12 men
to operate. It delivered up to
160 gallons of water per
minute at distances of up to
120 feet. Newsham’s
company operated under
various names into the 1770s.
• 1725 – Richard Newsham invents the 10-man, pump-action
fire engine. This and similar designs dominate firefighting
engine design for several decades.
• 1731 – New York first fire brigades are formed, with Engine
Company 1 and 2 using Newsham’s fire engine designs.
•1736 Benjamin Franklin established the Union Fire Company in Philadelphia. His model would be the
basis for volunteer fire companies in every colony.
•1737 – The New York Colony General Assembly created the 30-man Volunteer Fire Department of
New York. A predecessor to the NYFD.
•1743 – Thomas Lote, working in New York as a boat builder and inventor created the first American
designed fire engine, called, “Old Brass Backs.”
•1750 – French fire brigades become para-military units.
•1752 – Benjamin Franklin emulates the European model and establishes the Philadelphia
Contributionship. They issue “fire marks” that mark insured buildings for the paid firefighters to see
when responding to a fire.
•1752 – The Relief Fire Company No. 1 is formed and currently stands as the nation’s oldest serving
volunteer fire company. Created in Mount Holly, NJ, it was initially called Brittania.
•1756 – King Louis XV recommended
helmets for firefighters but it would
take many years before this would
go into common practice.
•1792 – Hadley, Simpkin & Lott co.
improved upon the hand-pumped
fire engine with more size and the
ability for it to be drawn by fire
horses.
•~1800’s – New York City fire companies attempt to sabotage each other by
covering hydrants with barrels and other tricks to compete for the right to
fight fires and be paid out by insurance companies for their work. This
eventually morphed them into political machines with Boss Tweed and his
Engine Company Number 6 is among the most famous examples.
•1801 – The first post-type fire hydrant is believed to be designed in
Philadelphia by chief waterworks engineer Frederick Graff.
•1803 – The Philadelphia Hose Company was established to man the nation’s
first hose-wagon fire engine.
•1810 – Napoleon Bonaparte forms the first professional firefighters known
as the Sapeurs-Pompiers or Sappers-Firefighters. These firefighters were
organized under the French army, commanded by the Commandant of
Engineers.
• 1818 – Molly Williams becomes the
first known female firefighter. She
served with the New York Oceanus
Company No. 11 and was famed for
hauling on drag ropes to pull a
pumper to a fire in deep snow during
a massive blizzard.
•1824 – The first organized municipal fire brigade in the world was created in
Edinburgh, Scotland and was led by James Braidwood. The founding of the
brigade would also establish what would be expected for a formal and
effective fire department.
•1829 – The first horse-drawn steam-powered fire engine was invented but
took another 3 decades for this innovation to catch on.
•1832 – London establishes its own fire brigade called the London Fire Engine
Establishment.
1841 – The first self-propelled steam fire engine is built in New York but
is soon take out of service after it was sabotaged by jealous firefighters
from another company.
1850 – The first full-time paid firefighter is hired in America.
1852 – William Channing, a Boston based doctor creates the first alarm
system that uses a telegraph signal to send a fire alarm.
• 1853 – Cincinnati, Ohio
creates the first
professional fire
department with all full-
time employees. It would
also be the first to truly
use steam-powered,
horse-drawn, fire engines.
The “Uncle Joe Ross” fire
engines, had a range of
240 feet and could power
up to six streams of
water.
•1865 – New York’s volunteer fire department is disbanded in favor of the
paid, full-time Metropolitan Fire Department.
•1868 – Daniel Hayes, a San Francisco firefighter, invents an extension
ladder that can attach to a ladder truck. This ladder uses a spring-assisted
mechanism that could help raise it so it could be used to save people
trapped in higher stories.
•1873 John S. Damrell established the National Association of Fire
Engineers. Later the name would be changed to the International
Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC).
•1873 – The Boston Fire Department launched the first fire-boat,
the William F. Flanders.
•1896 – The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) was established.
•~Late 1800’s – Full-time firefighters with standardized equipment become the
norm for firefighters in metropolitan areas and standardized equipment with
volunteer firefighters becomes the norm in more rural communities.
•1905 – The first self-propelled, internal combustion, fire engine was introduced.
Manufactured by Knox Automobile, in Springfield, MA.
•1906 – The Wayne, PA fire department becomes the first fire department to use
modern, gasoline-powered, fire engines.
•1910 – The First fire engine that uses the same engine to drive both the truck
itself and the water pump is invented.
•1916 – Garrett Morgan and a team of volunteers use Morgan’s gas mask
design to successfully rescue 32 salt miners from a gas-filled tunnel located,
250 feet under Lake Erie. This prompts fire departments around the US to
order the self-contained breathing apparatus.
•1818 – The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) forms to become
the union career firefighters.
•1925 – By this point, gasoline-powered fire engines have replaced almost all
steam-powered engines.
• 1973 – The report by the National Commission on Fire Prevention and Control (NCFPC), America
Burning, proves to be a landmark report. Making various recommendations to better control and prevent
fires.
• 1974 – The US Fire Administration and its National Fire Academy are founded by the enacting of the
National Fire Prevention and Control Act.
•1976 – The National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC), a nonprofit organization, is founded to give a unified
voice for volunteer fire fighters around the country.
•1987 – The NCFPC releases America Burning Revisited and hosts a three-day workshop that reports on the
progress, or lack thereof, in implementing the recommendations of more than a decade previously.
•1987 – Congressman Curt Weldon, a former volunteer firefighter, creates the lobbying group, the
Congressional Fire Services Caucus to support legislation to support all emergency personnel.
•2000 – America at Risk is released and concludes that “America today has the highest fire losses in terms of
both frequency and total losses of any modern technological society.”
•2019 – Today’s fire departments are a mix of full time, paid-on-call, and volunteer responders. Volunteer
and paid-on-call firefighters are more common in smaller communities, with full-time firefighters being the
norm in metropolitan areas.
