Editing Firefighting (section)

==History==
[[File:Firemen in action.jpg|thumb|[[Bulgaria]]n firefighters in action, 1930s]]
[[File:Ottawa Fire Department motor pump, Ottawa, Ontario.jpg|thumb|Ottawa Fire Department motor pump, Ottawa, Ontario, taken by the Topley Studio, May 1915.]]
{{Main|History of firefighting}}
The earliest known firefighters were in the city of [[Rome]]. In 60 A.D., emperor [[Nero]] established a Corps of [[Vigiles|Vigils]] (''Vigiles'') to protect Rome after a disastrous fire. It consisted of 7,000 people equipped with buckets and axes who fought fires and served as police.<ref name="Board of Regents">International Fire Service Training Association. Fire Service Orientation and Indoctrination. Philadelphia: Board of Regents, 1984. Print.</ref>

===Historic tactics and tools===
[[File:Πυροσβεστική αντλία Κτησιβίου και Ήρωνος, Μουσείο Αρχαίας Ελληνικής Τεχνολογίας Κώστα Κοτσανά.jpg|thumb|A reconstruction of the fire-pump of [[Ctesibius]]' and [[Hero of Alexandria|Heron]]'s in [[Museum of Ancient Greek Technology|Kotsanas Museum of Ancient Greek Technology]], [[Athens]].]]
In the 3rd century B.C., an Alexandrian Greek named [[Ctesibius]] made a double [[force pump]] called a ''siphona''. As water rose in the chamber, it compressed the air inside, which forced the water to eject in a steady stream through a pipe and nozzle.<ref name="Board of Regents"/>

In the 16th century, [[syringe]]s were also used as firefighting tools, the larger ones being mounted on wheels.<ref name="Board of Regents"/> Another traditional firefighting method that survived was the bucket brigade, involving two lines of people formed between the water source and the fire. Typically, men in one of the lines would pass along the full buckets of water toward the fire while in the other line women and children would pass back the empty buckets to be refilled.<ref name="Board of Regents" />

In the 17th century the first "fire engines" were made, notably in Amsterdam.<ref name="Board of Regents" /> In 1721, the English inventor [[Richard Newsham]] made a popular fire engine that was essentially a rectangular box on wheels filled using a bucket brigade to provide a reservoir while hand-powered pumps supplied sufficient water pressure to douse fires at a distance.<ref name="Board of Regents" />

===Ancient Rome===
[[Ancient Rome]] did not have municipal firefighters. Instead, private individuals relied on their slaves or supporters to take action. They would not only form bucket brigades or attempt to smother smaller fires, but would also demolish or raze nearby buildings to slow the spread of the fire. However, there is no mention of fires being extinguished, rather they were contained and burned themselves out. Ancient Rome did not have an organized firefighting force until the ''[[Vigiles]]'' were formed during the reign of [[Augustus]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wHEGcPZZmHwC&q=ancient+roman+fire+sale&pg=PA54 |title=Ancient Rome: From the Early Republic to the Assassination of Julius Caesar |isbn=9780415224581 |last1=Dillon |first1=Matthew |last2=Garland |first2=Lynda |author-link=Lynda Garland |year=2005 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |access-date=2020-10-17 |archive-date=2022-04-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220408203040/https://books.google.com/books?id=wHEGcPZZmHwC&q=ancient+roman+fire+sale&pg=PA54 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The first ever Roman fire brigade was created by [[Marcus Licinius Crassus]]. Fires were almost a daily occurrence in Rome, and Crassus took advantage of the fact that Rome had no fire department, by creating his own brigade—500 men strong—which rushed to burning buildings at the first cry of alarm. Upon arriving at the scene, however, the firefighters did nothing while Crassus offered to buy the burning building from the distressed property owner, at a miserable price. If the owner agreed to sell the property, his men would put out the fire; if the owner refused, then they would simply let the structure burn to the ground. After buying many properties this way, he rebuilt them, and often leased the properties to their original owners or new tenants.<ref name="The Great Fire of Rome:Life and Death in the Ancient City ">{{cite book|last = Walsh|first = Joseph|title = The Great Fire of Rome: Life and Death in the Ancient City}}</ref><ref name="Plutarch-2">Plutarch, Parallel Lives, The Life of Crassus 2.3–4</ref><ref>Marshall, B A: ''Crassus: A Political Biography'' (Adolf M Hakkert, Amsterdam, 1976)</ref><ref name="TrivLibCrassus">[[Wallechinsky, David]] & [[Irving Wallace]]. "[http://www.trivia-library.com/b/richest-people-in-history-marcus-licinus-crassus.htm Richest People in History Ancient Roman Crassus] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200226055241/https://www.trivia-library.com/b/richest-people-in-history-marcus-licinus-crassus.htm |date=2020-02-26 }}". Trivia-Library. ''[[The People's Almanac]]''. 1975 – 1981. Web. 23 December 2009.</ref>

===United Kingdom===
Prior to the [[Great Fire of London]] in 1666, some parishes in the UK had begun to organize rudimentary firefighting crews. After the Great Fire, [[Nicholas Barbon]] introduced the first fire insurance. In order to reduce insurance costs, Barbon also formed his own [[Fire Brigade|fire brigade]], and other companies followed suit.

By the start of the 1800s, insured buildings were identified with a [[Fire insurance mark|badge or mark]] indicating that they were eligible for a company's firefighting services. It is a common belief that buildings not insured with a particular company were left by its firefighters to burn,<ref name="fireservice.co.uk">{{cite web |url=https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/museum/history-and-stories/early-insurance-brigades-brigades/ |last=London Fire Brigade |title=Early fire brigades |date=2023 |access-date=16 August 2023}}</ref> unless they happened to be adjacent to an insured building, in which case it was often in the company's interest to prevent the fire from spreading. This is a common misconception.<ref name="fireservice.co.uk"/> In 1833 fire insurance companies in London merged to form The London Fire Company Establishment.

Steam-powered apparatuses were first introduced in the 1850s, allowing a greater quantity of water to be directed onto a fire; in the early 1930s they were superseded by versions powered by an internal combustion engine.

In [[World War II]] the [[Auxiliary Fire Service]], and later the [[National Fire Service]], were established to supplement local fire services. Before 1938, there was no countrywide standard for firefighting terms, procedures, ranks, or equipment (such as hose couplings). In the month of August in 1939 with war looking very possible the Fire Service's act of 1938 came into effect. This unified Great Britain's fire service and prepared them for the German war machine. During the [[The Blitz|London Blitz]], 700 fire men and 20 fire women, as known during the time period died as a result of heavy bombing, 91 of these perished at the same time defending London. By the end of the London Blitz, 327 firefighters had lost their lives.

===United States===
In January 1608, a fire destroyed many colonists' provisions and lodgings in [[Jamestown, Virginia]]. By the mid-1600s, [[Boston]], [[New Amsterdam]] (later [[New York City]]), and [[Philadelphia]] were all plagued by fires, and volunteer fire brigades began to form.<ref name="firehistory.org">{{cite web|url=http://firehistory.org/?p=130|title=Fire History - A Historical Repository for the Fire Service of the United States of America|work=Fire History|access-date=21 February 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141117181554/http://firehistory.org/?p=130|archive-date=17 November 2014}}</ref>
[[File:USS Forrestal explosion 29 July 1967.jpg|thumb|Firefighters onboard the USS Forrestal in 1967.]]
In 1736, [[Benjamin Franklin]] founded the [[Union Fire Company]] in Philadelphia, which became the standard for volunteer fire organizations. These firefighters had two critical tools: salvage bags and so-called bed keys. Salvage bags were used to quickly collect and save valuables, and bed keys were used to separate the wooden frame of a bed (often the most valuable item in a home at the time) into pieces for safe and rapid removal from the fire.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://lishfd.org/History/firefighting_in_colonial_america.htm|title = Firefighting in Colonial America|last = Hashagan|first = Paul|publisher = [[KSFFA]]|url-status = live|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171008211147/http://lishfd.org/History/firefighting_in_colonial_america.htm|archive-date = 2017-10-08}}</ref>

The first American attempt at fire insurance failed after a large fire in [[Charlestown, Massachusetts]] in 1736. Later in 1740, Benjamin Franklin organized the [[Philadelphia Contributionship]] to provide fire insurance, which was more successful. The Contributionship adopted "fire marks" to easily identify insured buildings. Firefighting started to become formalized with rules for providing buckets, ladders, and hooks, and with the formation of volunteer companies. A chain of command was also established.<ref name="firehistory.org" />