THE STORY OF JAMES BRAIDWOOD.
"Something must be done!"
Many an Edinburgh citizen must have expressed this decision in the
memorable year 1824. Several destructive fires had occurred, and at each
catastrophe the need of efficient organization was terribly apparent. It
seemed as though the whole city would be burned.
Then the police took action. The commissioners of the Edinburgh police
appointed a committee, and a Fire-Engine Corps, as it was called, was
established, on October 1st of the same year. The new organization was
to be supported by contributions from various companies, from the city
of Edinburgh, and from the police funds.
"But who was to superintend it?"
Now, a gentleman had become known to the commissioners, perhaps through
being already a superintendent of fire-engines; and though only
twenty-four years of age, he was appointed.
His name was James Braidwood. He was born in 1800 in Edinburgh, and was
the son of a builder. Receiving his education at the High School, he
afterwards followed his father's business. But in 1823, he was appointed
superintendent of the fire-engines, perhaps owing to his knowledge of
building and carpentry; and when the corps was established, he was
offered the command.
He proceeded to form his brigade of picked men. He selected slaters,
house-carpenters, plumbers, smiths, and masons. Slaters, he said
afterwards, become good firemen; not only from their cleverness in
climbing and working on roofs--though he admitted these to be great
advantages--but because he found them generally more handy and ready
than other classes of workmen.
They were allowed to follow their ordinary occupations daily; but they
were regularly trained and exercised every week, the time chosen being
early in the morning. Method was imparted to their work. Instead of
being permitted to throw the water wastefully on walls or windows where
it might not reach the fire at once, they were taught to seek it out,
and to direct the hose immediately upon it at its source.
This beneficial substitution of unity, method, skill, and intelligent
control for scattered efforts, random attempts, lack of organization,
and discord in the face of the enemy, was soon manifest.
Five years after the corps had been established under Mr. Braidwood, the
_Edinburgh Mercury_ wrote: "The whole system of operations has been
changed. The public, however, do not see the same bustle, or hear the
same noise, as formerly; and hence they seem erroneously to conclude
that there is nothing done. The fact is, the spectator sees the
preparation for action made, but he sees no more. Where the strength of
the men and the supply of water used to be wasted, by being thrown
against windows, walls, and roofs, the firemen now seek out the spot
where the danger lies, and, creeping on hands and feet into the chamber
full of flame or smoke, often at the hazard of suffocation, discover the
exact seat of danger, and, by bringing the water in contact with it,
obtain immediate mastery over the powerful element with which they have
to contend. In this daring and dangerous work, men have occasionally
fainted from heat, or dropped down from want of respiration; in which
case, the next person at hand is always ready to assist his companion,
and to release him from his service of danger."
Not only exercising great powers of skilful management, Braidwood showed
remarkable determination and presence of mind in the face of danger.
Hearing on one occasion that some gunpowder was stored in an
ironmonger's shop, which was all aflame, he plunged in, and, at imminent
risk of his life, carried out first one cask from the cellar, and then,
re-entering, brought out another, thus preventing a terrible explosion.
In 1830, Mr. Braidwood issued a pamphlet dealing with the construction
of fire-engines, the training of firemen, and the method of proceeding
in cases of fire. In this work he declared he had not been able to find
any work on fire-engines in the English language--a state of things
which testifies to the lack of public interest or lack of information in
the matter in those days. The book is technical, but useful to the
expert before the era of steam fire-engines.
But in a volume, issued a few years after his death, Mr. Braidwood takes
a comprehensive glance at the condition of fire extinguishment in
different places. The date is not given; but it was probably about 1840.
In substance he says: "On the Continent generally, the whole is managed
by Government, and the firemen are placed under martial law, the
inhabitants being compelled to work the engines. In London, the
principal means ... is a voluntary association of the Insurance
Companies without legal authority; the legal protection by parish
engines being, with a few praiseworthy exceptions, a dead letter. In
Liverpool, Manchester, and other towns, the extinction of fires by the
pressure of water only, without the use of engines, is very much
practised. In America, the firemen are generally volunteers enrolled by
the local governments, and entitled to privileges."
From this bird's-eye view, it will be seen that organization for fire
extinction and the use of efficient appliances for fighting the flames
were still in a very unsatisfactory state; yet the increasing employment
of lucifer-matches and of gas in the earlier years of the nineteenth
century tended to increase conflagrations.
Moreover, it is curious that the public seemed but little aroused to
this unsatisfactory condition of affairs. Perhaps they saw their way to
nothing better; perhaps, if they took precautions, they regarded a fire
as unlikely to occur in their own house, even if it might happen to
their neighbour. Whatever the cause, they seem to have been but little
stirred on the subject.
It was probably Mr. Braidwood's pamphlet of 1830 that led to his
appointment as chief of the newly-formed London Fire-Engine
Establishment. The publication showed him to be an authority on the
subject, and one likely to succeed in the post. He came with the cordial
good wishes of his Edinburgh friends. The firemen presented him with a
gold watch, and the committee with a piece of plate.
He was ever careful of his men. He watched their movements, when they
were likely to be placed in positions of peril; and he would not allow
any man to risk unnecessary danger. Yet he was himself as daring as he
was skilful, and never shrank from encountering personal risk.
This was the sort of man who came to lead the London Fire-Engine
Establishment. He found it a small force, composed of groups of men
accustomed formerly to act in rivalry, and having between thirty and
forty engines, throwing about ninety gallons a minute to a height of
between seventy and eighty feet, and also several smaller hand-hauled
engines, comparatively useless at a large fire. In addition to the
establishment of the associated companies, there were about three
hundred parish engines and many maintained at places of business by
private firms.
By his energy and skill, Mr. Braidwood kept the fires in check, and came
to be regarded as a great authority on fire extinguishment and
protection from fire. On these subjects, he was consulted in connection
with the Royal Palaces and Government Offices, and held an appointment
as a chief fire inspector of various palaces and public buildings. He
became an Associate of the Institute of Civil Engineers, and read
several papers before that body, and also before the Society of Arts, on
the subject of the extinction and prevention of fires.
The force under his command was increased from eighty to a hundred and
twenty men; but it still remained the Establishment of the Fire-Offices.
Throughout the country, the extinguishment of fire continued largely in
the hands of voluntary workers, assisted by various authorities, even
the fire-brigades being sometimes supplemented by the police and the
water companies, as well as the general public.
And then an event occurred, which not only thrilled London with horror,
but probably led to one of the most remarkable developments in the
efforts for fire extinction that England had known.