60 Fun Facts About Firefighter

Which Roman emperor created the Vigiles, the first organised public firefighting force, in AD 6?

The Vigiles were 7,000 men in seven cohorts, each patrolling two of Rome's fourteen districts, and were nicknamed the Sparteoli, or 'little bucket fellows'.

Which Alexandrian inventor developed the first fire pump in the third century BC?

Hero of Alexandria improved the design two centuries later; manual pumps then had to be rediscovered in Europe after 1500.

The Great Fire of London in 1666 began in a bakery on which street?

The blaze that started at Thomas Farriner's bakery destroyed more than 13,000 houses, yet only a handful of deaths were officially recorded.

After the 1666 fire, London's first fire brigades were run by whom?

Insurers protected only their own clients, whose buildings were marked with metal fire insurance marks so brigades knew which fires to fight.

Which Dutch artist and inventor's workshop developed the fire hose in the 1670s?

The first hoses were 50-foot lengths of leather sewn together like a boot leg and joined with brass fittings.

Which American founding father established Philadelphia's Union Fire Company in 1736?

Nicknamed 'Franklin's Bucket Brigade', it was capped at 30 members and each had to keep six leather buckets and two stout linen bags marked with his name.

Which US city created the first fully paid, full-time professional fire department, on 1 April 1853?

Even today the profession is largely voluntary: in 2015 about 70% of US firefighters were volunteers.

In which year did Molly Williams, America's first known female firefighter, pull a pumper through a blizzard?

Williams, an enslaved woman known as 'Volunteer No. 11', stepped in when male firefighters were scarce during a cholera outbreak.

The Great Chicago Fire broke out in the autumn of which year?

The same night, the Peshtigo Fire in Wisconsin killed between 1,200 and 2,500 people, making it the deadliest wildfire in American history.

Who admitted in 1893 to inventing the story of Mrs O'Leary's cow starting the Chicago fire?

Reporter Michael Ahern confessed he made it up; the Chicago City Council formally exonerated the O'Learys in 1997.

US Fire Prevention Week falls in the week containing which date, in memory of the Great Chicago Fire?

President Coolidge proclaimed the first National Fire Prevention Week in 1925, after Woodrow Wilson's single Fire Prevention Day in 1920.

Which president proclaimed the first National Fire Prevention Week in 1925?

The Fire Marshals Association had first marked a National Fire Prevention Day in 1911, on the 40th anniversary of the Chicago blaze.

The three sides of the classic 'fire triangle' are heat, oxygen and what?

Add a fourth element, the chemical chain reaction, and you have the fire tetrahedron taught in modern training.

In the US classification system, a fire involving cooking oils and fats is which class?

Europe and Australia label the same kitchen fires Class F, and Europe no longer has a specific class for electrical fires at all.

Burning magnesium, titanium or sodium is classed as which type of fire in the US?

Water can make combustible-metal fires worse, so they are fought with special dry powders instead.

A flashover, when everything in a room ignites almost at once, occurs at roughly what temperature?

Crews cool the ceiling gases with short bursts of water and ventilate precisely to keep a room from reaching that point.

What does the acronym SCBA stand for on a firefighter's back?

It is usually paired with a PASS device that sounds an alarm if the wearer stops moving.

A PASS device worn by firefighters sounds an alarm when what happens?

The Personal Alert Safety System lets a rapid-intervention team locate a downed colleague by sound in zero visibility.

The Halligan bar, the classic forcible-entry tool, was designed in 1948 by a deputy chief in which city?

Hugh Halligan's tool has a fork, an adze and a pick; married to a flat-head axe it becomes 'the irons'.

A Halligan bar paired with a flat-head axe is known in the fire service as what?

The two tools partially interlock head-to-toe so one firefighter can carry the whole forcible-entry set in one hand.

George Hurst invented the Jaws of Life around 1961 after watching a slow extrication at what kind of event?

Workers had needed more than an hour to free the injured driver; the phrase 'Jaws of Life' came from people saying the tool snatched victims from the jaws of death.

The first permanent fire pole, installed by Chicago's Engine Company 21 in 1878, was made of what?

Captain David Kenyon's crew shaved a Georgia pine beam into a 3-inch pole and varnished it; the first brass pole followed in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1880.

Why did Dalmatians become the traditional fire station dog?

Dalmatians get along unusually well with horses, and the puppies are born pure white, with spots appearing over the first weeks.

Under the NFPA colour code, a hydrant with a blue cap delivers how much water?

Red marks the weakest hydrants; the colours let arriving crews decide instantly whether to call for more resources.

How was the record of Frederick Graff's 1801 cast-iron hydrant invention lost?

The irony of the hydrant patent burning is a firehouse favourite; Graff's design became the standard American 'post' hydrant.

Turnout gear is also called 'bunker gear' because the trousers and boots were traditionally kept where?

Modern gear is built from heat-resistant aramids such as Nomex, Kevlar and PBI and must meet the NFPA 1971 standard.

In most US fire departments, a white helmet identifies whom?

Red helmets usually mark company officers such as lieutenants and captains; the ornamental eagle on the front dates to about 1825.

Canadian fire helmets often replace the traditional eagle ornament with which animal?

The eagle finial itself began as a sculpture on a volunteer firefighter's grave around 1825 before it migrated onto helmets.

A single section of standard attack hose is how long?

Larger supply lines come in 100-foot lengths, and hoses are hung in station towers to dry because standing water rots the lining.

A tiller truck is distinctive because it has what?

The rear driver steers the trailer wheels, letting a very long ladder truck take sharp corners on narrow streets.

A 'quint' fire apparatus is so called because it performs how many functions?

Pump, water tank, hose, aerial ladder and ground ladders on one chassis; drop one and it is a 'quad'.

A 2009 study found which colours are easiest to spot in daylight, prompting some fire engines to drop red?

The 2009 US Fire Administration study drove the switch, though tradition keeps most rigs red.

Smokejumpers fight remote wildland blazes after arriving how?

The first fire jumps were made on 12 July 1940 in Idaho's Nez Perce National Forest; as of 2025 only five countries field them.

Which Norman Maclean book covers the 1949 Mann Gulch fire that killed twelve smokejumpers?

The disaster led directly to the modern safety standards, including the Ten Standard Firefighting Orders, used by all wildland crews.

The Pulaski, the standard wildland firefighting tool, combines an axe with what?

Ed Pulaski, a Forest Service ranger who saved 45 men in the Great Fire of 1910, is credited with the design.

The Great Fire of 1910 torched about three million acres in Idaho and Montana in how many days?

Hurricane-force winds fused hundreds of small fires on 20-21 August; 87 people died, mostly firefighters, and Congress doubled the Forest Service budget.

The Granite Mountain Hotshots, 19 of whom died in the 2013 Yarnell Hill Fire, were based in which state?

The Prescott crew's story was told in the 2017 film Only the Brave; hotshot crews of about 20 first formed in Southern California in the 1940s.

Because of the volume of fan mail he received, Smokey Bear was given his own what in 1964?

ZIP 20252 is still active; the real cub rescued from a 1950 New Mexico fire lived at the National Zoo for 26 years.

In 2001, Smokey Bear's slogan changed to 'Only you can prevent...' what?

The change recognised that grasslands and other non-forest areas burn too; the original line dated from 1947.

Aerial retardant released from air tankers is dyed red for what reason?

The colour comes from ferric oxide or a fugitive dye; the 747 Supertanker could carry about 19,600 gallons of it.

International Firefighters' Day, 4 May, is the feast day of which patron saint of firefighters?

The date was chosen after five Australian firefighters died in a 1998 bushfire near Linton, Victoria; a red-and-blue ribbon symbolises fire and water.

What was tied to the neck of the patron saint of firefighters when he was thrown into the Enns River?

He was originally sentenced to burn; another legend has him putting out a blaze with a single pitcher of water, which is why statues show him holding one.

How many FDNY members were killed in the September 11 attacks?

The FDNY, 'New York's Bravest', is the largest municipal fire department in North America with more than 11,000 uniformed firefighters.

In which year did New York's Metropolitan Fire District replace volunteer companies with a paid force?

The FDNY now runs 254 firehouses and EMS stations and trains recruits on Randall's Island.

The Paris Fire Brigade is unusual among big-city fire services because it is a unit of what?

Napoleon militarised it in 1811 after a deadly fire at the Austrian embassy ball; Marseille's firefighters belong to the Navy instead.

James Braidwood, first head of the London Fire Engine Establishment, died at which 1861 blaze?

Braidwood had introduced protective uniforms; his successor Eyre Massey Shaw led the brigade for the next thirty years.

In the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire, fire ladders reached only as high as which floor?

The factory occupied floors 8 to 10 and its stairwell doors were locked; the disaster produced 38 new labour laws in New York.

Boston's 1942 Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire led to laws requiring exit doors to do what?

Revolving doors could no longer be the only exit, and exit signs had to stay lit on an independent power source.

Chicago's Iroquois Theatre, which burned in 1903 with 602 deaths, had been advertised as what?

The deadliest theatre fire in US history gave the world the panic bar and the rule that public doors open outward.

Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 takes its title from the temperature at which what supposedly ignites?

Bradbury typed the first draft in nine days on a rented typewriter in a UCLA library basement, at ten cents per half hour.

Who directed the 1991 firefighting film Backdraft?

The Chicago-set film follows firefighters on the trail of a serial arsonist and spawned a Universal Studios Hollywood attraction that ran from 1992 to 2010.

What number does the fictional station in the NBC drama Chicago Fire carry?

Its exteriors are shot at the real Engine 18 on South Blue Island Avenue; the show launched the One Chicago franchise in 2012.

The 1970s series Emergency! followed paramedics Gage and DeSoto of which fire department?

Within three years of its debut, 46 of 50 states had passed laws allowing paramedics to practise, and its props are now in the Smithsonian.

Fireman Sam of Pontypandy was created by two former firefighters from which country's capital?

Londoners Dave Gingell and David Jones created him, but the show first aired on Welsh channel S4C in 1987 and Pontypandy blends Pontypridd and Tonypandy.

Which country was first to introduce a national emergency telephone number, 999, in 1937?

America's first 911 call came in Haleyville, Alabama, in 1968; the middle '1' matched existing special codes like 411.

The single most common cause of on-duty US firefighter deaths is what?

Traffic collisions on the way to or from calls account for another quarter of fatalities.

Which US city set up the country's second career fire department, four years after Cincinnati?

Large cities moved to paid, full-time staff to handle rising call volumes.

In the UK and Ireland, what is the term for on-call crew paid per incident plus a small salary?

Around 18,000 of them serve in the UK, and in both countries they make up the majority of active firefighting personnel.

In which country are most fire services run by private companies?

Singapore and much of Switzerland use fire service conscription, while Monaco's firefighters are part of its military.

What did a 2018 Act of Congress require the CDC to create to track cancer in the fire service?

A 2015 study had found firefighters developed mesothelioma at twice the rate of other workers.