Hazard Episode

The Origin Of Fire Fighting Gear

The enormity of fire mishaps annually prompts that everybody should observe fire preventative measures.  However, this seems rather overlooked by many.  Anyone can see that we still hear reports of houses and properties on fire.  Fire is beneficial to us, except when it is unrestrained it damages and wreaks havoc.  This is why setting up of fire fighting equipment is more than an essential safety measure to mitigate dangers.

Wild fire threatens lives and destroys everything.  In a split second, all can turn into dust.

Fire is a natural substance that has been present for hundreds of millions of years.  Data shows that it was only approximately 1.9 million years in the past that the prehistoric human ancestors were capable of controlling fire.  They used it to prepare food.  They also used it to heat themselves during the cold season.  Fire was especially valuable in cold climates.  Yet there are cases when it simply is not needed.

Man began to fight fire when he discovered it turned into a peril.  In 200 B.C. the Egyptians used hand operated pumps made of lumber.  Rome in the 6 AD had tried to douse fires using pumps and buckets.  They had fire groups that included men that formed lines to the closes origin of water.  They then handed pails from one man to another to the fire.  During the 13th century France had installed night watchers to act as guards in Paris on crime and fire.  The city suffered numerous incidents of fire in the 1500s.  London was not saved from these freak incidents.  Everybody is aware of the Great Fire in London which occurred in 1666 that left tens of thousands of people without a place to stay.  There was no available fire fighting organization in London.  This incident encouraged the formation of an insurance arrangement to safeguard the citizen’s properties when there is fire.  Industrial fire fighting equipment was not sophisticated back then.

A German inventor named Hans Hautsh improved the short-ranged hand operated pump by discovering the suction and force pump.  Later another inventor, this time a Dutch named Jan Van der Heyden invented the thing known as fire hose that was made of leather.  Early in the 18th century, Richard Newsham improved the fire engine, which was able to hurl 160 gallons of water every minute from 36 meters away.

Bucket crews were likewise seen in the U.S., specifically in Boston.  In the 1700s, fire groups (they made use of pails during the time) compete with each other.  That was because insurance companies during that time paid fire fighters to rescue buildings and properties.

Today, fire control has become much sophisticated, although the machinery seems an improvement of a number of the equipment used centuries ago.  Ambrose Godfrey, a famous chemist, patented the first fire extinguisher in England in 1723.  George William Manby made the recent fire extinguisher in 1818.

A lot of companies today produce fire safety equipment and various industrial-building safety gadgets like gas detection equipment.

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