Page 54 - Red Alert

RED ALERT - THE FIRE SERVICE

Fire marks ACTIVITY
PRINT FROM DOWNLOADS

Following the Great Fire of London in 1666, the first steps were made towards organising a proper firefighting service.
Wooden houses were replaced by brick ones and home owners began to insure their houses against fire.

Insurance companies were given permission to provide fire protection. For a regular payment, the company would agree to attend to
any fires in your house. If your house burnt down, the insurance company would have to pay the price of replacing the house. The
companies hired men to put out fires in the buildings that they had insured. If a house caught fire that was not insured, the firefighters
would leave it to burn. To show that your house was insured by a particular insurance company, you would display a ‘Fire Mark’ on the
outside of the building. A ‘Fire Mark’, a large medal was fastened to the wall of the house showing which company had insured the
property. Insurance companies hired firefighters to put out fires only in the buildings which they had insured.

With fire an ever present danger in towns and cities, fire alarms were developed. Church bells would be rung in reverse peal as a fire warning.
Each church also had an iron fire hook to pull down the burning thatch from the roofs of buildings. Sand, earth or water were often carried in
buckets to pour over the flames but against a big fire they were useless. Sometimes gunpowder was used to blow up houses in the path of
the fire to make a breach. This was quite successful unless a strong wind was able to blow the sparks across the breach to start more fires.

Here are two examples of Fire Marks. Can you design your own Fire Mark.

52