History of fire and firefighting

History of fire and firefighting

Fire accidents started to occur right from when people learned how to start a fire. From that tie till know lot of agencies and groups have been made to save people and their belongings from fire. The reason of fire can be different but in mostly cases we have seen that this happened due to irresponsibility of humans.  Thousands of people have had lost their lives because of that.  

There are lot of evidence which show us how people of Egypt and china learned to control fire thousands year back. The first crew was made to protect Rome from fight by Caesar. After that lots firefighting group were being made. In united state there has been lot of fire incidents throughout history. First fire incident was in 1608 in Jamestown. There was a huge loss of people’s lives as well as properties and money. This happened just after the town was found. Then again there is lots of fire in Boston after it has been found in 1630. The biggest fire incidents in Boston were in 1631, 1654 and 1676. The loss of those fire incidents is still uncountable. That was the time when people started to think that there should be rule to prevent fire or ways to control it and to prevent losses. The first fire fighting association called fire wanders was formed in 1648 by Peter Stuyvesant the American governor. The job of these wanders was to save new buildings in New Amsterdam and to make save exit in buildings and to make sure that these doors do work properly. At that time rule against public display of fire and fire causing elements was banned. After that the VFD or Volunteer Fire Department was made in 1737, the only difference between these fighters and the regular firefighter was that they were not used to of working on fixed shifts.

American fire insurance company” was established by Benjamin Franklin to cover the losses of fire. It was the greatest need of that time to do something for the loss that has happened because of fire at that time. After the great fire of New York happened in 1835, the insurance companies who covered the involve buildings get bankrupted and lot of people got homeless and jobless, so people thought that it is not possible to cover all the loss of fire for insurance companies and there is a great need to establish something more stronger which will save the firefighter and the insurance companies. In 1866, National Board of Fire Underwrite was made to look at the losses of fire and who insurance companies will be able to cover it. Lot of companies and dealers worked together in this board to solve all the issue and all parties involved in fire situation was benefited by it.

After that building was being made with fire proof material but it still did not work because there were flaws in the construction of buildings so new rules were invented such as the fire exit doors should outside not inside and fire alarm should be installed in every building or home.