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Fire Service History Essay

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Lung Disease in Firefighters, History of the Fire Service The establishment of the first volunteer fire department is often accredited to Benjamin Franklin around 1736. Franklin noted that Boston had "a club or society of active men belonging to each fire engine, whose business is to attend all fires with it whenever they happen" (“Fire Service History,” n.d.). While there have been many technological and procedural developments in the fire service over the centuries, it has remained primarily a “club or society of active men.” The annual average from 2008 to 2012 for the amount of women in the fire service was only 3.8%. In addition to only having 3.8% of firefighters being women, the amount of firefighters being Black or of Hispanic origin …show more content…

Even though the amount of injuries sustained by firefighters annually have dropped by 46% from 1981 to 2013, there are still over 65,000 firefighters injured or killed due to work related incidences. The leading types of injuries are strains or sprains, followed by thermal burns, then cuts or lacerations. Additionally, 58% of job related deaths are caused by overexertion, stress, and medical issues and another 14% died due to asphyxiation and smoke inhalation (NFPA, 2015). Although only 14% of people die from smoke inhalation, there are many other nonfatal diseases that are caused by the amount of toxic gases firefighters are exposed to on the job. One of the most common of these diseases is lung disease. While there have been many advances to protect firefighters from smoke exposure, they are still at risk of …show more content…

While both younger and older generations showed a decline in lung function, older generations had a greater decline (2013, p. 271). This is accredited to the advances in technology and training within the fire service over the past few decades. Older generations reported they would only occasionally use breathing apparatuses during fire operations. Because of this they were exposed to more smoke inhalation leading to greater damages in their respiratory

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Home builders associations not only in the Richmond area, but even in other countries are strongly opposed to making residential fire sprinklers mandatory in new housing development. Construction companies are arguing that the materials they are using are fire resistive, and smoke detectors are now wired right in with your electrical system making them more reliable (Jeffery, 2008, para. 31). While these measures taken by builders certainly are a step in the right direction, they simply are not the final destination. Jeffery (2008) further explained that CTV News a local news station in the Ontario area, reported on a story involving children aging from 5 to adolescent, and their response to smoke detectors. The children understood that the smoke alarm would be activated, as well as what they were to do once they heard the alarm, however, when the alarm sounded not a single child got out of bed (para. 22).

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In today’s society, building regulations have made the buildings themselves better equipped for the possibility of a fire. Jonathan Fowler, a level three local firefighter volunteer in Cave City, Arkansas for the past nine years, said the fire of 1911 burned the whole building in a total of eighteen minutes. As a result, each room in a standard government building can help contain a fire for fifteen minutes and keep the flames from spreading further and causing even more destruction. Another example of a positive result from the fire is within two years of the tragedy, more than thirty laws had been passed to help prevent anything tragic that can be averted from happening again (Wignot). Another result of the fire was it made Americans realize that those women who burned were technically citizens of the United States of America, but because they were immigrants, they were discriminated against and not treated fairly (Cornell).

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Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, New York City, 1911 this was a high-rise building. Someone threw a cigarette into a bin containing strap metal material, causing it to ignite, killed 250 employees on the ninth floor” (Sturzenbecker, Adams, and Burnside, 2012, p.9-10). This was a look at a fires that injured and killed occupants. The fire service as a whole has come a long way in life safety and property conservation. The fire service achieved this by adopting rules and codes and improving the fire protection systems.

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