The fear of fire is both timeless and universal.
For centuries communities have sought ways to control its force and prevent its
destruction. Ancient Rome organized the Corps of Vigiles, a professionally
trained group of fire fighters.
Napoleon established Paris's first governmental fire fighting body, the Corps de
Pompiers in 1811. In the seventeenth century Amsterdam had a city brigade with
public supervisors. The most famous of this group, Jean Vander Heyde, provided
the world not only with designs for more sophisticated fire fighting equipment
particularly the concept of leather hose but also left as his legacy detailed
descriptions and engravings of seventeenth century Dutch fire fighting and
apparatus. In contrast, seventeenth and eighteenth century London had
little in the way of municipal fire protection. While the city provided some of
the necessary equipment buckets, squirts, and ladders it was left to the
insurance companies to protect the property of their policyholders. They hired
watermen from the Thames, outfitted them in colorful liveries, and provided some
of the more sophisticated equipment such as engines. (TOP)