Early Firefighting History

• Humans are the only species that can start and use fire.
• Most homes use fire for cooking and heating.
• Problems arise when people become too comfortable with fire.

Evolution of Fire Protection

• The first firefighting force was in Rome.
• It was called the Familia Publica.
• The force was made up of slaves carrying primitive fire pumps.
• The slaves were slow to respond to fires because they were more concerned about their own safety.

American Settlements

• Jamestown was founded in 1607, and they experienced a conflagration in the winter of 1608.
• The design of Jamestown made it susceptible to conflagrations.
• Fire protection consisted of creating firebreaks by pulling down structures and bucket brigades.
• Bucket brigades consisted of townspeople forming two lines from the water source to the fire, passing full buckets towards the fire, and empty buckets back to be refilled.
• Fires would get a good head start while people slept.
• New Amsterdam, Boston, and other towns adopted a curfew that mandated fires be extinguished or covered from 9:00 PM to 4:30 AM.
• Around the time of Great Fire of London, American colonies did not have organized firefighting forces.
• Fire insurance companies began to advertise availability of their own firefighting forces to protect the properties they insured.
• The fire brigades would only fight fires in the businesses they insured because it was a for-profit business.
• Boston established the first publicly funded, paid fire department in America in 1679.
• Ben Franklin organized the Union Volunteer Fire Company in Philadelphia in 1736.
• He conceived the idea of the volunteer fire companies.

Volunteer Fire Companies

• Membership was a source of great pride for many Americans.
• There were long waiting lists to join.
• Many famous Americans served on volunteer fire companies, including George Washington, John Hancock, Alexander Hamilton, Samuel Adams, and Paul Revere.
• Some companies would send a man with a bucket of water to the scene as fast as possible to claim first water for his company.
• Cincinnati became the first city with a fully paid fire department in 1853.

Modern Fire Department

• Modern fire departments provide diverse services, including fire prevention, public safety education, fire suppression, medical aid, rescue services, and hazardous materials response.
• The fire service is full of traditions.
• New firefighters are still required to prove themselves.
• Most fire engines are still painted red.
• People are still required to come in at the bottom of the organization and work their way up.
• Tradition and a sense of history help to instill pride in the organization.
• Fire suppression takes up very little time.
• Some departments report that medical aid requests are 70% of their incident volume.
• Some departments provide ambulances and paramedic programs to their communities.

Personal Protective Equipment

• The traditional helmet shape had a short brim on the front and a long brim on the back.
• This kept embers and hot water from going down the back of the firefighter’s neck.
• The shield was mounted on the front with the company number and the firefighter’s or department’s name.
• The modern SCBA was invented around 1945.
• It should reduce the number of firefighters suffering cancer from fire-related exposures to toxic gases and soot.

History of Wildland Fire in America

• The history of wildland fire in America is older than the nation.
• Before settlement and relocation of native tribes, fire was set by the natives to herd buffalo, renew vegetation, and open up the forest floor by reducing undergrowth and downed materials.
• The initial reaction to these fires was that the park was destroyed.
• The park has not only survived, but thrived.
• These fires allowed the natural process of fires to reduce fuels and returned nutrients to the soil.

Wildland Fire Management

• When the federal government has a wildland fire on their lands, they manage it.
• Several things are taken into consideration: cost per acre to suppress the fire, personal safety due to terrain features, resource values to be protected, and historic site values.

Equipment

• The first hoses were made of sewn leather.
• Sewn leather hoses leaked, which reduced the hose stream at the nozzle.
• The next improvement was riveted leather hose, which was much tougher and leaked considerably less.
• These improvements continued through linen hose, rubber-lined cotton hose, and today’s synthetic hose.
• The invention of the steamer and the problems with fighting among the volunteer companies led to the extinction of the volunteer fire departments in many of the larger cities.
• Extension ladders up to 75 ft. in length were brought to fires.

Fire Service Symbols

• Survivors were awarded a special cross as a badge of honor.
• The cross symbolizes the idea that a firefighter will lay down his life for others.
• John 15:13 - Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for the sake of his friends.

Fire Losses

• The Great Chicago Fire occurred on October 8-10, 1871.
• It burned for three days and destroyed 3 ⅓ square miles of the city.
• It left 100,000 people homeless and killed approximately 300.
• President Calvin Coolidge proclaimed the first National Fire Prevention Week to be October 4-10, 1925.
• More recently a primary cause of large fires resulting in great property loss and numerous deaths is terrorism.
• On 9/11, two hijacked airliners were purposefully flown into the twin towers of the WTC in NYC, a third airliner hit the Pentagon in Arlington County, VA, and a fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania.
• The life toll was over 3000 persons, including 343 firefighters.
• Property loss was estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars.
• There is a constant threat that these types of incidents will continue to occur.

Loss from Wildland Fires

• Part of the reason So Cal wildland fires reach conflagration proportions is the extreme weather experienced in the fall.
• The weather pattern builds up high pressure over the Great Basin coupled with a low pressure off the coast of So Cal causing hot, dry Santa Ana winds to blow from the Great Basin across So Cal to the Pacific Ocean.
• Powered by these winds and fueled by dry brush, wildland fires grow quickly to conflagration size.
• Combustible exterior construction in the form of wooden decks, wood shake roofs, and wood exteriors are found throughout So Cal, and with this construction, the fire quickly rages out of control.

US Fire Problem

• Approximately 4000 people die every year in the US as a result of the fires, and another 22,000 are injured.
• About 100 US firefighters are killed annually in duty-related incidents, and another 87,000 are injured.
• Fire is the third-leading cause of accidental death in the home.
• Top five areas of fire origin in residents: Kitchen (26%), Bedroom (13%), Living room/den (8%), Chimney (8%), and Laundry area (5%).