History of fire fighting — from bucket chain to fire classes and smoke alarm

As long as humans have used fire they have also feared it. In cities of wood with thatched roofs open fires and narrow streets a single spark could lay entire neighbourhoods to waste. The history of fire protection is therefore also the history of cities and legislation: every time a catastrophe struck people learned something that was written into rules building practices and preparedness. Most of what we take for granted today — fire brigades extinguishing equipment escape routes and smoke alarms — are responses to past fires.

§How the learning pyramid works — and why active learning is so effective

Before there were organized fire brigades, firefighting was a common task for the whole town. When there was a fire, citizens formed a bucket chain from the nearest well or stream and passed leather buckets of water hand to hand. They used pike hooks and long poles to tear down burning roof structures and neighboring houses so the fire couldn't spread — removing the fuel was often the only real way to stop a large fire. It was slow, dangerous, and rarely enough, and major city fires were common in all of Europe.

§The great city fires spurred things on

Some fires were so destructive that they changed history. The Great Fire of London in 1666 laid much of the inner city to waste and led to both new building codes and – through the enormous losses – to the first fire insurance companies. Insurance companies quickly discovered that it was cheaper to extinguish fires than to pay for rebuilding, and they therefore established their own fire brigades. Buildings received 'fire marks' (firemarks) so the brigades could see which buildings their own company had insured. It was an early, but tentative, form of organized firefighting.

§Copenhagen fires and the Danish fire service

Fire also shaped the cities in Denmark. Copenhagen got a proper royal fire service at the end of the 1600s, but the city was still hit by two catastrophic fires: In 1728 a large part of the city burned, and about a fifth of the population lost their homes. In 1795 a new major fire broke out at the fleet's timber storage at Gammelholm and spread through the city. The fires led to stricter rules, better organization and later to the fire service becoming a municipal task during the 1800s. At the beginning of the 1900s, private rescue corps also arrived, which took care of both fires, accidents and the sick.

“Every major city fire left two things: ash — and new rules. Much of today's fire legislation was written with the experience of past disasters.”

— History of fire fighting

§The handheld fire extinguisher is invented

An important technical breakthrough was the portable hand fire extinguisher. An early attempt was patented in England in the 1720s, but the real predecessor of the modern handheld extinguisher was the pressure container that Briton George William Manby demonstrated in the early 1800s—a copper container with a solution that could be sprayed on the fire. This shifted thinking from a pure bucket brigade to one person being able to respond to a beginning fire immediately. Since then, extinguishers have become specialized: water, foam, powder, and carbon dioxide (CO2) for different types of fires—precisely because people learned that the wrong agent can make the fire worse.

§Fire classes and the right extinguishing agent

Experience with water on burning grease or on electrical equipment being life-threatening was gradually systematised. Fire was classified by type based on what burns — solid materials, liquids, gases, metals and kitchen grease — making it clear which extinguishing medium should be used where. Likewise, building materials were classified according to how they react to fire. Today much of this is collected in European standards such as EN 13501-1 for material reaction to fire, which also takes into account smoke development and burning drops — because experience has shown that smoke is often more dangerous than the fire itself.

§Prevention and the smoke alarm — winning time

Perhaps the most important modern insight is that the best fire is one that either never starts or is discovered so early that everyone gets out. That is why in recent times the focus has shifted toward prevention and early warning: fire sections and fire doors that hold back fire and smoke, clear escape routes, and above all the smoke alarm. Most people who die in fires die from smoke poisoning — often in their sleep — and a smoke alarm that wakes in time has proved to be one of the cheapest and most effective life-savers of all. Active fire protection (alarms, extinguishers, sprinklers) and passive fire protection (sections, doors, material choice) today complement each other.

§Fire fighting today — extinguish, but above all prevent

Where once you had to tear down an entire district to stop the fire, one person today can often extinguish a beginning fire with the right agent — or, more importantly, prevent it from starting and make sure everyone gets out if it does. The golden thread through history is clear: we have moved from fighting the catastrophe after it happened to preventing it and buying time. That is the development behind everything you learn about elementary firefighting, fire classes, evacuation and prevention today.

“The history of fire fighting goes from bucket chain to smoke alarm — from extinguishing the disaster to preventing it and buying the minutes that save lives.”

— Fire safety point