My Firefighter Nation
Firefighting History & Traditions
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The wikapedia history of Gamewell telegraph alarms
A fire alarm box is an outdoor device used for notifying a fire department of a fire. Early boxes used the telegraph system and were the main method of calling the fire department to a neighborhood in the days before people had telephones. When the box is triggered, a spring-loaded wheel spins and…
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Is salvage still important?
Is salvage still important? I am conducting research for the National Fire Academy’s EFO program on the current state of fireground salvage operations. Specifically I am interested in where salvage now falls in terms of incident priorities, and whether a new consensus is developing in light of the…
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Apparatus Traditions: The "Chicago Package"
I live in the Chicagoland areaand have had a few oppurtunities to visit some of my friends in Chicago. I had one of my daughters with me during one such visit and she asked me, "daddy, why does that fire truck have a green light instead of a red one like your truck?" ...So, like any good father and…
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History of the SCBA
Fire service folklore recounts the practice of firemen growing long beards to help them breathe heavy smoke. The theory was a fireman would dip his whiskers in a pail of water, then clinch his wet beard between his teeth and breathe through his mouth, using the wet beard as a filter.One of the…
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1st Paid Department in The area now known as United States?
You"ll hear a couple versions of this story too..... but When was the first fire department organized in the United States? A large fire in Boston in 1679 led to the organization of the first paid fire department in America. The city imported a fire engine from England and employed…
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Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
Last winter I wrote an essay on the fireground operations at the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (http://pipenozzle.com/?page_id=391). Time editor David Von Drehle and Damon Campagna, the director of the New York City Fire Museum…
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imagine during this period the progress in these 60 odd years on one hand
1841 - First American steam fire engine, New York, used only a few months.1845 - Philadelphia burns, 900 buildings.1847-1854 - 1.6M Irish immigrate following famine, many take to firefighting.1840s-1850s - First facilities for hanging hose in fire stations.1848 - Albany burns, 600 buildings.1849 -…
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Firefighting traditions book
Just started reading The Fire Service History, Traditions & Beyond by J.A. Rhodes it was published in 2006 but it is new to me. Highly recommended.
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History of Volunteer Firefighting
The man who established the first volunteer fire department also invented bifocals, wrote and printed Poor Richard’s Almanac, studied electricity and helped draft the Declaration of Independence. His name was Benjamin Franklin. The first volunteer fire department began in Philadelphia in 1736.Ben…
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fire poles make 20
fire poles are so awsome because it helps firefighters get to the trucks faster
