|
 |
Company Apparatus (New!!)
|
Alarms for 2008
Where was the first American Fire Dept.
It is somewhat hard to say. The first American (volunteer) fire department company is
Franklin noted in his own newspaper, in 1735, that Boston had "a club or society of active men belonging to each fire engine, whose business is to attend all fires with it whenever they happen." This may have been one of the concepts that help him go down in history as one of our first, if not THE first, fire chief. The difference between Ben Franklin's "fire brigade" and the other co-ops, of clubs, is that he saw the advantage of protecting all the property of the community and not just those who had joined together to help fight each other's fires. Franklin formed a fire brigade that became know as The Union Fire company. This was made up of about 30 volunteers from the community. These men met monthly to discuss fire fighting techniques. But this was not the only "fire company" in Philadelphia. Soon afterwards there were others known as, the Britannia, the Heart-in-Hand, the Fellowship and others. Many prominent early Americans were volunteer firefighters. After all, in most cases, if people didn't organize and form some kind of co-op, there wasn't anyone to help keep the town from burning down. George Washington was a volunteer in Alexandria, Va. and purchased a new fire engine to donate to the town. During the Civil War, entire fire companies or departments would join up and many became the elite Zoave battalions. The Civil War is often credited with helping to establish the fire department rank system that exists today. While fighting in the war, the leaders of the fire brigade received rank and continued to be known by that title long after returning home. Between 1800-1900 many American cities suffered devastating fires and realized that something had to be done. More and more cities established government sponsored fire brigades. Prior to that, fires were fought by volunteers or private companies. Some of these private fire brigades were freelance while others were owned by insurance companies. These insurance companies developed their own fire mark. The fire mark was placed in the area of the door on the house or building. If the house or building didn't have the fire mark of the insurance company the fire department would not put out the fire.Ben Franklins fire department had a green tree for their fire mark. His fire department would not fight a fire if there were trees in the yard.
|
often credited to Ben Franklin, around 1736, in Philadelphia. This started as a club, or co-op, to protect each other's homes in the event of a fire. But there were organizations resembling firefighting "clubs", also known as "Mutual Fire Societies" in Boston prior to this. Boston also had "Firewards" as early as 1711. As early as 1678, Boston had some fire fighting equipment and a paid crew to maintain it and respond to fires. In 1648, New York, and a few other cities, had a volunteer "rattle watch" who patrolled the streets. If a fire was discovered these people would sound an alarm and help organize bucket brigades. As early as 1731 there is a record of the City of New York purchasing fire apparatus. This was a hand pump/brake bar engine.
