Popular Science: On the United States' Fire Protection System a Century ago

After the Chicago fire of 1871 , Boston fire chief Damiry surveyed the spread of the fire and was worried. He was very worried about the situation in Boston and made arrangements for responding. Unfortunately, the expected fire broke out a year later. Due to the horses and fire horses being reduced in size, the 500 coaches scheduled by Damri in advance did not deliver the fire trucks to a reasonable place in time. The fire eventually burned about 65 acres of construction area, damaged 776 buildings in the heart of the city's business community , and lost 75 million dollars in 1872 , about $ 1.35 billion today.

In July 1873, a year after the fire in Boston, a statistical analysis paper entitled "Fire, fire departments," published in a magazine subscription, "North American Review" on. The author is James Baggby, who was later the father of NFPA president Percy Bagbie. In this summary article, Baggby (father) studied carefully the actions taken during the 1872 fire and extinguishing in Boston .

Baggby’s article praised the application of new technologies in firefighting. However, he also pointed out that the main problems that existed at that time were the methods and materials used in construction. He pointed out that the Americans have not yet learned the lessons of the past six or seven decades and continue to pay for them alone. Worse, he pointed out that the general lack of personal responsibility in fire prevention. Because the local area is mainly immigrants, immigrants lack of adaptation to the local geography and climatic conditions, so there is a lack of fire safety culture. There is a deep-rooted over-reliance on fire insurance in the Americas, and new reliance on paid firefighters and steam fire trucks to protect American cities. In Baggy's opinion, this is a reliance on personal responsibility (in fact, it is only a normal phenomenon in the immigrant society). To some extent, his information still applies to towns and cities in the 21st century, because cities and even countries are trying hard to adopt basic construction and fire regulations to counter the will of powerful lobby groups. This news should resonate with the firefighters who still pay the price for the “general lack of sense of responsibility” in the United States today. Throughout the history of the United States, even though volunteers have transitioned from manual fire engines to steam fire engines and full-time firefighters, Americans have failed to distinguish between independent politics and self-interest from the issue of fire.

Bargby highly praised the professional vision and experience of London Fire Chief Xiao Meixi. As a veteran professional, visiting Xiao Meisi always spared no effort to comprehend the work of his American counterparts. Bagby from an originally appeared in the "London Herald" reported on September 28, 1869, when it comes Xiao Macy study visit to US fire department. Visitors are concerned about the issue of fire in emerging countries.

1. Most major US fire department officials, or so-called chief engineers, and chief assistant engineers, are elected, not promoted, and political influence often plays the most important role in the election.

In some towns, fire chiefs and his assistants are appointed by the mayor, which may be better in both. But in any case, they got this position, this appointment is generally only temporary, according to local arrangements, duration varies from one to three years or so.

It is difficult to be considered as the actual ethnic group of Americans. The person in charge of an important department that requires considerable skills and special training must compete every year with his subordinates and others, or win new elections. Or lose your position. However, the result of such a work is of course fatal and hinders the advancement of professional work.

2. Americans now have powerful and powerful machinery, a large number of horse-drawn equipment, and a large number of people. Dedicated to the huge institutions that will be affected by humanity; it can almost be argued that the city will continue to provide funding for long-term, necessary for the presentation of part of the expenses related to heavy expenses, mainly by the lack of technology and practice. This is a very bizarre and irresponsible fact. Americans have forgotten or neglected to use manual fire engines while pursuing steam fire trucks, and have completely eliminated the simple fire extinguishing devices, thereby depriving them of instant fire extinguishing ability at their doorsteps. Let yourself fall behind in Europe's most backward countries.

He had asked every city why he had to do this, but he had not yet received as much as one reply to give the slightest reason; instead, the answer was usually that the manual pump was useless. This statement was incorrect at the time because the fact was that some major cities in the world were still completely protected by manual pumps.

3. In Bugby's view, what Americans are proud of is their gowns, so that those volunteer firefighters claim that enthusiasm and assault can outweigh training and discipline.

Those who endorse this theory even claim that the more people know about their business, the lower their interest. If it is the views of professional American fire officers, it is clear that they have not met the criteria for organizing their actions to cope with the increasing problem of urban fires, a standard that has not been lost.

4. Officials in many cities set up boards to supervise the management and operation of the fire department and work hard to promote professionalism from top to bottom. The political influence of the old volunteers in the early nineteenth century has shifted to new paid fire services. However, this time politicians exert influence on the management of the fire department business, and the firefighters did not exert influence on political figures.

5. In the Great Fire of 1872 , the political deployment of fire-fighting resources, fire stations, and equipment in Boston played a significant role for Boston firefighters. Those firefighters who had been accustomed to entering the burning building to extinguish the fire, were shocked by the fire development, intensity and serious sex at the time. The witnesses testified to the assistant engineer that the arrivals would stop and stay on the first steam engine they encountered. With reference to British Fire Chief Chae-Mei Xiaomei, the US fire department lacked advice on training, and Baggby seems to agree that the general plan for the operation of the evening (Boston Fire) was not revealed. Instead of putting people and equipment in strategic positions, firefighters simply enter the battle wherever they are.

6. The U.S. volunteer firefighting system was forced to retire under the name of technological advancement and modernization. This conversion to steam engines and paid staff is promoted by well-meaning businessmen and politicians in the name of economic development. Even more incredible is that today the same group criticized the spending on fire services too.

7. Baggé also provided a detailed summary of the 33- year work of the London Fire (from 1833 to 1866 ) when the fire was directly controlled by the fire insurance industry. ( This is particularly significant for China today.)

American cities’ efforts to maintain truth data lag far behind London.

In the 33- year record, London experienced 29,069 fires.

The reasons for reporting are classified as follows:

Candles, 3218 times;

Curtains, 2,822 times;

Foul flue, 1,946 times;

Defective flue, 301 times;

Gas, 1,682 times;

Sparks, 1255 times;

Self-ignition, 274 times;

Children use fire, 471 times;

Child Lucifer (a kind of game) mistakes, 95 times;

Smoker, 406 times;

Poisoning, 155 times;

Naphtha lamp out of control, 70 times;

Lime relax, 93 times;

Lightning strikes, 12 times;

Hunting mistakes, 15 ;

Reading in bed, 34 times;

Smoking in bed, 2 times;

Bed fabrics, 3 times;

Interlining, 3 times;

Cat, 34 times;

Dog, 9 times;

Monkey, 1 time;

And Jackdaw 1 time.

There are also 9,557 fires that are unclear and some of them are reasonably suspected of spontaneous combustion.

As for the type of construction used, most of the fires occurred in private homes and boarding houses.

By profession and occupation, a total of 33 years

1,164 carpenter shop fires ;

533 store fires ;

422 book and paper shop fires ;

223 print shop fires;

208 warehouse fires. According to the annual season,

Most of the fires occurred in the winter, and the least occurred in the autumn (which is related to the rainfall characteristics in London).

During the day, most of the fires occurred between 8:00 and 11:00 .

Interestingly, New York recorded that there were 100 children playing with matches during the year , and London reported that 471 children played with fire in 33 years , of which 95 children played matches. In contrast, the United States lacks similar data collection.

8. Baghdad clarified the intricate and complex relationship between the control and governing bodies of Boston at the time of the fire. There are committees, joint committees, and mayors of the city's senators. In short, the Senate and the Common Committee formed the Boston City Council.

The City Council selects the chief engineer (fire chief) of the Boston Fire Department and 14 chief engineers every year. The mayor of Boston received approval from the councillor and was appointed as a full member of the fire department. However, the City Council approves funding, which means that they have absolute control over the actual number of firefighters assigned, their remuneration, their qualifications, service conditions, and job responsibilities. They also purchased fire-fighting equipment (steam fire trucks, hooks and ladders, hoses, etc.) and decided where and when they should be deployed.

9. According to the Baggerian model, a well-run department is the New York Fire Department, which he describes as a similar military unit, nine fire camps, and 50 fire companies. At that time, this force was fully paid for by a chief engineer, 12 deputy chief engineers, 52 foremen (fire brigade captains) and 52 assistants. Each steam engine is assigned 2 engineers and each company has 8 firefighters. They often exercise and regularly train and patrol their respective areas of response. The division is divided into three branches: a branch is fire extinguishing and fire prevention led by the chief engineer, a branch is responsible for the inspection of combustibles, regulates the sale and storage of combustibles, and a branch is responsible for investigating the cause of the fire. The Mayor of New York appointed a commissioner to manage the board of directors of the New York Fire Department. Occasionally, the position of Director of the Fire Services Bureau and Department (Chief Engineer) is held by one person.

I did not hesitate to cite the contents of the above-mentioned Baghdad report because he and the London Fire Chief, Xiao Meisi, observed the United States, and they can all be copied to contemporary China. If these two people are asked to inspect the fire protection system in China, we find that the United States's Baggby and Britain's Xiao Meisi are like prophets and have also seen the weaknesses of the Chinese contemporary fire protection system. The experience is all the same, because of the same geographical and climatic conditions between China and the United States. Stones from other hills, can learn.

1. Most of the major officials of the Chinese fire department, or so-called chief engineers, are not appointed but are appointed. However, China’s posts rarely allow Bretton Wood to assume 28 years in the UK , allowing him to take 25 years. The number of years of technical jobs represents the degree of technology accumulation. Today, we are still talking about Bretton Wood's fire strategy and Xiao Meixi's empirical formula, and Chinese counterparts will not have the opportunity to come up with a set of effective methods to deal with the changing conditions of the fire. The personnel system arrangement for fire protection issues determines the effect of technology accumulation.

2. The Chinese now have very advanced fire-fighting equipment. You look at the Mercedes-Benz fire engines on the streets of Urumqi. They are also more German than Germany. You look at the ladder trucks on the streets of Shanghai and are even more American than the United States. The problem is that while the Chinese people are pursuing their equipment, they have forgotten the quality of the operators. Sometimes simple fire extinguishing equipment (it does not necessarily have to be returned to the manual pumping equipment), as long as the use of law, the trustee can still play a timely and timely fire-fighting effect. In general, the importance of the equipment team, its staffing may not be able to keep up with the equipment. The Chinese people’s infatuation with fire-fighting equipment is more than 140 years ago in the United States.

3. Feelings of obsession with the Americans are also a magic weapon for our firefighters. Individual heroism, in any case, will increase the rate of casualties in the fire. There are many people who are against professionalism in China. The reason is that the more you know about the fire, the smaller you are, and the less you dare to engage in firefighting operations. This kind of ignorance was very popular in the United States 140 years ago and it is also very popular in contemporary China. The modern fire scene is more focused on the mind (knowledge) than physical strength.

4. China's fire protection system has always been arranged from top to bottom. No one has ever heard of the voice of the ground firefighters.

5 The system of fire-fighting before the liberation was forced to give way, and military service-based fire protection was promoted in the name of cheap. In the end, it was still said that the investment in firefighting was too great to reject further investment.

6. The London Fire Protection System has a stable and professional team, so it collects and accumulates data on the loss. The United States once lacked stable data because the fire brigade lacked a stable leader. China's data is too watery. More than one person told me how the fire department modified the loss data in accordance with the will of the leadership and created the illusion of peace year after year. Therefore, the biggest problem in domestic firefighting planning is how serious is China's fire problem? No one knows.

7. The personnel management of China's firefighting is similar to that of Boston in the United States 140 years ago.

8. The organizational structure of China's firefighting is similar to that of New York, 140 years ago.

Why did experts observe the U.S. fire-fighting situation 140 years ago, which basically applies to China? Because China and the United States have similar latitudes and face similar geographical, demographic, and climatic conditions, they also face similar fire conditions (climate catastrophes). Specifically,

the first,   Late-developed countries lack long-term accumulation. Sixty years after the founding of the United States , there was a serious fire problem and 70 years after the founding of the People’s Republic of China , serious fire problems also emerged.

second,   The same latitude means a similar fuel. In the United States in particular, vast forests provide endless wood, so wooden construction is very popular. Although China has largely eliminated old buildings in urbanization in recent years, there are still risks of fire spreading in shanty towns and old cities, such as the 2010 Fuzhou fire.

third,   The same latitude means similar environmental humidity. The environmental humidity protects the wood and allows the ignition to focus on the period of dryness and dryness. Therefore, fire problems are concentrated and easily politicized. The European fire problem is relatively evenly distributed, and the promotion of professionalism is less resistant.

fourth,   In a dry and dry climate, Puritan ethics and the spirit of the Conservative Party (right) are prone to develop; under warm and humid climate conditions, it is prone to generate liberal ideas and the spirit of the revolutionary party (Left). The former emphasizes improvement from time to time, opposes rashness, and advocates compromise; the latter emphasizes stability from time to time, opposes reform, and advocates revolution. Both China and the United States are the places where the dispute between the left and the right stands out. Europe is relatively stable, left or right, and there is not much controversy. This is the impact of climate on culture.

Fifth, the United States and the contemporary China , 140 years ago, were immigrant societies. Many people left their homes to look for opportunities. They were difficult to integrate into the local geography and climate-induced culture. The complexity of immigration is a key factor in many fires. In this regard, the United States and China are similar.

The information in this article comes from the Internet and was reorganized and edited by China Rescue Equipment Network.