Who invented firefighters?

Answer 1

Ben Franklin created the first organized Fire Departments (volunteer) that were made soley for fighting fires.

The Romans made the first fire watchman, the vigils..

The first firefighters, I would have to say are the first people that wanted to put fires out.. and I agree with #1.. Groog son of grooog when groogs' beard caught on fire.

organized groups is a whole different matter.

Answer 2

Benjamin Franklin

Answer 3

Benjamin Franklin invented the first firestation, that's the best I can so for you.

Answer 4

Grogg, son of urogg. Urogg invented fire....Grogg had to help put it out when Urogg's beard caught fire.

Answer 5

Smoke?

Answer 6

someone who wanted to put out a fire. lol.

Answer 7

THE ROMANS(actually prior to Ben franklin).........read on...smile

The History of Fire Fighting

Fire Fighting, techniques and equipment used to extinguish fires and limit the damage caused by them. Fire fighting consists of removing one or more of the three elements essential to combustion-fuel, heat, and oxygen-or of interrupting the combustion chain reaction.

Fire Departments

The Roman emperor Augustus is credited with instituting a corps of fire-fighting vigiles ("watchmen") in 24 BC. Regulations for checking and preventing fires were developed. In the preindustrial era most cities had watchmen who sounded an alarm at signs of fire. The principal piece of fire-fighting equipment in ancient Rome and into early modern times was the bucket, passed from hand to hand to deliver water to the fire.

Another important fire-fighting tool was the ax, used to remove the fuel and prevent the spread of fire as well as to make openings that would allow heat and smoke to escape a burning building. In major conflagrations long hooks with ropes were used to pull down buildings in the path of an approaching fire to create firebreaks. When explosives were available, they would be used for this same purpose.

Following the Great Fire of London in 1666, fire brigades were formed by insurance companies. The government was not involved until 1865, when these brigades became London's Metropolitan Fire Brigade. The first modern standards for the operation of a fire department were not established until 1830, in Edinburgh, Scotland. These standards explained, for the first time, what was expected of a good fire department. After a major fire in Boston in 1631, the first fire regulation in America was established. In 1648 in New Amsterdam (now New York) fire wardens were appointed, thereby establishing the beginnings of the first public fire department in North America.

Fire Departments in the United States

In the modern sense, fire departments constitute a comparatively recent development. Their personnel are either volunteer (nonsalaried) or career (salaried). Typically, volunteer fire fighters are found mainly in smaller communities, career fire fighters in cities. The modern department with salaried personnel and standardized equipment became an integral part of municipal administration only late in the 19th century.

Organization

In some cities a fire commissioner administers the department; other cities have a board of fire commissioners with a fire chief as executive officer and head of the uniformed force; in still other cities a safety director may be in charge of both police and fire departments. The basic operating unit of the fire department is the company, commanded by a captain. A captain may be on duty on each shift, although in some fire departments lieutenants and sergeants command companies when the captain is off duty. Fire companies are usually organized by types of apparatus: engine companies, ladder companies, and squad or rescue companies.

Fire Alarms

Fire-alarm systems came into existence with the invention of the telegraph. Today many communities are served either with the telegraph-alarm system or with telephone call boxes. Most fires, however, are reported from private telephones. Many large cities have removed all or many of their street alarm boxes because of problems associated with maintenance and with false alarm transmissions. Some boxes have been replaced with telephones.All alarms are then transmitted to the fire stations. In large cities, alarms are received at a central dispatch office and then transmitted to fire stations, frequently with the use of mobile teleprinters and computers. Apparatus is dispatched according to the nature of the alarm and location of the fire. Many modern departments are now equipped with computer-aided dispatch systems that can track the status of all units and provide vital information about the buildings where fires occur.

Typically, on a first alarm, more apparatus is sent to industrial sections, schools, institutions, and theaters than to neighborhoods of one-family dwellings. Additional personnel, volunteer or off duty, is called as needed. Fires that cannot be brought under control by the apparatus responding to the first alarm are called multiple-alarm fires, with each additional alarm bringing more fire fighters and apparatus to the scene. Special calls are sent for specific types of equipment. Mutual aid and regional mobilization plans are in effect among adjacent fire departments for assisting each other in fighting fires.

Fire Prevention

Perhaps more important than fire fighting itself in many modern industrial countries is fire prevention. In Russia and Japan, for example, fire prevention is treated as a responsibility of citizenship. Fire fighters in the U.S. are trained in basic fire-prevention methods, and fire companies are assigned inspection districts in which they attempt to prevent or correct unsafe conditions. Fire departments are charged with enforcement of the local fire-prevention code and of state fire laws and regulations. A fire-prevention bureau in the fire department usually directs fire prevention activities. It handles the more technical fire-prevention problems, maintains appropriate records, grants licenses and permits, investigates the causes of fires, and conducts public education programs. All commercial or multiple-dwelling buildings are inspected at regular intervals, and orders are issued for the correction of violations of fire laws. If necessary, court action is taken to compel compliance.

In some communities protected by volunteer or part-time paid fire departments, fire prevention is the responsibility of a state or county fire marshal or of a professional fire staff in an otherwise voluntary organization. In addition, fire departments usually inspect commercial buildings for what is called prefire planning.

Private dwellings may also be inspected as part of a fire department's educational program to impress the importance of fire safety on the inhabitants and to check for any unsafe conditions.

Emergencies

Many modern fire departments spend a decreasing amount of overall activity in fighting fires. Instead, fire fighters typically respond to all kinds of emergencies. For example, in the U.S. approximately 70 percent of all emergency medical calls are handled by the fire service. The same is true in many other countries.

The enormous increase in transportation of hazardous materials or dangerous goods has resulted in intensified training for fire fighters, and their departments often provide them with chemical protective clothing and monitoring equipment. Fire departments also prepare and equip their members to handle emergencies that result from earthquakes, plane crashes, and violent storms. In addition, fire fighters handle incidents that require extricating trapped people from fallen structures, from cave-ins, and from other situations.

Fire Departments Outside the United States

Although fire fighting is largely a matter of local jurisdiction in the U.S., many countries have more centralized fire departments. Italy has a national fire service (Corpo Nazionale-Vigili del Fuoco) organized into 92 provinces, administered from 12 regional centers. In Great Britain, local fire departments are organized into county, borough, and special district departments, all under a chief inspector of fire services. In France, fire protection is administered in sectors, except in Paris, where the fire department is operated by the Sapeurs-Pompiers, a brigade of the French army, and in Marseille, where it is administered by the navy. The Japanese government administers 43 regional and 3 metropolitan fire departments. In Denmark, local governments contract for fire-fighting services with companies under supervision of the Ministry of Justice. In Germany, professional fire brigades operate in large cities; volunteer brigades serve the small towns.

In all industrial countries fire fighters undergo training, beginning with probationary fire fighters' school and continuing throughout a fire fighter's career. Great Britain has several fire training centers. In Russia, fire schools are in Moscow and Saint Petersburg; Sweden and Denmark have similar schools. In some European countries fire protection and fire fighting are among the courses included in teaching safety engineering. International fire service and fire protection associations bring together leaders of the fire services of many nations. In Europe Comité Technique International de Prevention et d'Extinction du Feu (CTIF) has over 30 member nations, including Russia. The Organización Iberoamericana de Protección Contra Incendios (OPCI) brings together the fire service leaders of all Latin American countries. The Asia-Pacific region is served by the Asian Pacific Fire Safety Association (APAC).

Fighting the Fire

Most fire fighting consists of applying water to the burning material, cooling it to the point at which combustion is no longer self-sustaining. Fires involving flammable liquids, certain chemicals, and combustible metals often require special extinguishing agents and techniques. With some fuels the use of water may actually be dangerous.

Fire Engines

The first fire engines, which appeared in the 17th century, were simply tubs carried on runners, long poles, or wheels; water was still supplied to the fire site by bucket brigade. The tub functioned as a reservoir and sometimes housed a hand-operated pump that forced water through a pipe or nozzle to waiting buckets. The invention of a hand-stitched leather hosepipe in the Netherlands about 1672 enabled fire fighters to work closer to the fire without endangering their engines and to increase the accuracy of water placement.

At about the same time the development of pumping devices made it possible to draw water from rivers and ponds. In the early 19th century copper rivets replaced the stitching on hoses, and 15-m (50-ft) lengths coupled with brass fittings enabled fire fighters to convey water through narrow passages, up stairways, and into buildings, while the pumps operated in the street. Cotton-covered rubber hose was developed around 1870. The steam-pump fire engine, introduced in London in 1829 by John Ericsson and John Braithwaite, was used in many large cities by the 1850s. Most steam pumpers were equipped with reciprocating piston pumps, although a few rotary pumps were used. Some were self-propelled, but most used horses for propulsion, conserving steam pressure for the pump. Steam fire engines were used in fighting the Chicago fire of 1871.

With the development of the internal-combustion engine early in the 20th century, pumpers became motorized. Because of problems in adapting geared rotary gasoline engines to pumps, the first gasoline-powered fire engines had two motors, one to drive the pump and the other to propel the vehicle. The first pumper using a single engine for pumping and propulsion was manufactured in the United States in 1907. By 1925 the steam pumper had been completely replaced by motorized pumpers. The pumps were originally of the piston or reciprocating type, but these were gradually replaced by rotary pumps and finally by centrifugal pumps, used by most modern pumpers.