Firefighter Skills

12/3/2014 Every Firefighter skills book that I have read starts out with a chapter entitled “The Orientation and History of the Fire Service.” As I have begun my pursuit of a career in the Fire Service, I have learned much more about the history of the Fire Service than I ever intended to initially. As the famous Spanish/American philosopher, George Santayana, once said, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” I believe this quote is of momentous importance because as we grow as a society, we need to keep in mind our previous mistakes, so we as a whole can try to prevent repeating history by working towards a solution before it even becomes a problem. This is extremely prevalent in the Fire Service today, which has

October 8th, 1871 has been commonly referred to as “The Night America Burned.” This was really the first time that the dangers of fire were displayed on a national scale. The lack of effort for construction regulations, as well as no rain for three weeks, put Chicago at a great risk for a major fire. A delayed response time as well as many other factors caused the Great Chicago Fire to burn through the city for three days. By the time it was finally brought under control, more than $2 million in damage was caused. It also left 300 people without their lives, as well as 90 thousand others homeless. As this fire started in a barn on the west side of the city, another major fire was raising just 262 miles north of Chicago in Peshtigo, Wisconsin. Although this fire was not quite as critically acclaimed as the Great Chicago Fire, it is well known as the most deadly fire in American history. As the summer progressed, the woods of Wisconsin had experienced a major drought and logging operations left pine branches covering the forest floor. A flash forest fire started and began to cover 2,400 square miles of forest land. This fire left 2,200 plus people without their lives, and illustrated just how dangerous a wild land fire can become. The combination of these two fires left many communities in a state of desolation. As these communities began to rebuild, they enacted more strict building and fire codes. Soon after, the development of water pumping systems, advances in firefighting equipment, and improvement in communications as well as alarm systems were flourishing to try to help prevent fires of this magnitude from