Fire Service since Ancient Times - Essay Example

History of the Fire Service The history of fire service s back to the Ancient Egyptian times. In those days, hand-operated pumps were employed inorder to set out fires. However in the present times, fire fighting has become a wholly separate and specialized field in its own right. It has been given the much needed respect that it richly deserved for a long period of time. The firefighters are being respected all over the world more and more and their heroics are coming to the fore every now and so often. The first Roman fire brigade consisted of a faction that comprised of slaves who were sponsored by Marcus Rufus. Later on, Augustus took a leaf out of Rufus’ book and developed broadly on the related concept which brought forward the pumps as well as bucket brigades. Then there were the poles, hooks, ballistae which could look after the tall buildings which caught up fires. Since Rome suffered a number of fires during those times, there was a need envisaged to have a proper and adequate fire service in place. Nearly two-thirds of Rome was destroyed courtesy the fire itself. Also, within Europe, fire service used to be of a basic nature until the 17th century. The Great Fire of London in the year 1666 was also one of the reasons fire service was thought of as a necessity in not only London but also the whole of Europe. Moving ahead with the United Kingdom reigns of fire and the related after-effects, one finds that the steam powered fire appliances were brought into the use since these were thought of as being extremely reliable whilst setting out fires and arson attacks. This change within United Kingdom came about in the year 1850 onwards. These appliances replaced the engines which were used in a manual fashion and thus the automatic elements came into play, much to the relief of the fire fighters. Also far greater amount of water was stored within these appliances as compared to the ones that were used in the past. However the steam powered appliances lasted only for five decades after which they were taken over by the internal combustion engine in the earlier parts of the 1900s. By about 1940, there were nearly 1500 small fire brigades which were run within the UK Fire Service and particularly by the local councils working under the national domains. Concerning the fire service history within the United States, the whole process kicked off after 1631 when John Winthrop, Boston’s Governor at the time put an end to erecting wooden chimneys and similar-material roofs. In 17 years time, four fire wardens were appointed by the New Amsterdam Governor as they had the role to inspect all chimneys and in the case of any negligence by domestic owners, the latter were to pay a fine for the same. In those times, bucket brigades were formed so that citizens could help each other out and thus set out fires in an instant manner. It was in the year 1678 that the first fire engine service was made operation within the US. In 1736, the Union Fire Company was founded by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia. The American President, George Washington worked as a volunteer for the fire fighter group within his time. Since United States did not have any professional fire fighters within this era, a need was sought to rectify this shortcoming at the earliest and hence amateur fire brigades were brought into commission. These worked in a very small fashion to save buildings and set out fires however their role was negligible since the demand to set out fires was increasing with each passing day. Within this time, the technical issues included the usage of unsuitable equipment and the same equipment getting failed in the wake of its real testing, i.e., at the time of the actual fire event. Then there is the basis of system capacity being inadequate and thus owing to losses on the fire department’s part. Situation reporting and incident management were also some of the key aspects that came under the increasing usage of the fire service regimes. The same needed to be given more importance by the fire departments in the related scheme of things within the US territories. Majority of the people spend a huge amount of time finding information related with fire and its causes. They seem to go deep inside the very basis of a fire and its spread. These types of findings usually play a very significant role in the works of architects, engineers as well as the emergency planners since a real case of fire provides as much learning experience and exposure for these people as they could possibly think of. Thus they document every minor detail that they can get their hands on and try to understand the rational behind the very same. After 9/11 the research has become even more significant since the people seem to have an alarming anxiety within them intensely as compared to what used to be the case pre-9/11 era. It could be due to the falling of the two World Trade Center towers. They just do not want themselves to be caught up in such a situation all said and done. In the end, the history of fire service can be summarized by the fact that it has only enhanced with the development in this field day in day out. The main breakthrough happened with the advent of the fire engines and it has continued to improve till this day. Proper funding and further research will shape up a better tomorrow for the fire service and its future will indeed be very different from how its past looked like. Also the use of automation would help the fire service achieve greater results in a short amount of time and the loss of life and property would be minimal. These guarantees must be understood by the people at the helm of affairs within the fire service regimes so that the coming generations reap the benefits of the seeds sown today. Bibliography Clay, Franklin. Managers and the Volunteer Fire Service: Sharing Common Ground. Public Management, Vol. 80, July 1998 Yang, Chyan. A Conceptual Framework for Improving Fire-Fighting Service Quality of a Public Fire Department. International Journal of Public Administration, Vol. 24, 2001 Robinson, O. F. Ancient Rome: City Planning and Administration. Routledge, 1992 McCarl, Robert S. An Analysis of Performance in Fire Fighting Culture. Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 97, 1984 Word Count: 1,016 Read More