Today's
firefighters are armed with elaborate flow charts that delineate the
chain of command and define responsibility on the fireground. Even
so, the modern fireground commander ultimately faces the same
responsibilities and problems his or her Colonial counterpart had
more than 200 years ago.
Since the
beginning of organized firefighting in the U.S., it became obvious
that centralized command was needed - someone would have to take
charge and coordinate the efforts of those attacking the fire,
salvaging goods and preventing fire extension.
In 1711,
the City of Boston took steps to control the chaos that occurred
during a fire and better organize the attack against the flames.
Firewards, described as "prudent persons of known fidelity," were
appointed. Each was given a five-foot red staff topped with a bright
brass spike to "distinguish them in their office."
The
firewards were "required upon notice of fire breaking forth, taking
their badge with them, immediately repair to the place, and
vigorously to exert their authority for the requiring of assistance,
and using utmost endeavors to extinguish or prevent the spreading of
the fire and secure the estate of the inhabitants; and due obedience
is required to be yielded to them and each of them accordingly for
that service."
When the
first fire company was formed in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin
in 1736, its efforts, and those of the additional companies that
soon organized, were under the guidance of similar firewards.
Firefighters setting up bucket brigades, operating pumps and pulling
down burning roofing materials all fell under their control.
In New York
City, Jacobus Stoutenburgh became the head of the volunteer fire
department in 1761, with the title of "Overseer of Fire Engines."
The department was reorganized the following year and Stoutenburgh's
title was changed to "Engineer," then to "Chief Engineer" and
finally to "Chief." (This is believed to be the first time any
firefighter in the U.S. was officially known by the rank of chief.)
The rank of
chief soon became popular with fire departments throughout the
country, and the association of the speaking trumpet and a fire
officer was starting. The earliest mention of trumpets in New York
City was in 1752, when Jacobus Turck, who was in charge of the
department at that time, was authorized "to purchase six small
speaking-trumpets for the use of the Corporation."
The first
trumpets were made of tin and were painted. The officers called
cadence through the trumpets to keep the men on the hand pumpers in
time on the noisy fireground. The trumpets soon were being made from
brass and were being presented as gifts to members of the
departments. Chief officers used them for overall command at the
scene of working fires. They also became part of the elaborate
uniforms of the volunteer firemen.
The
speaking trumpet was in use for many years as a communication
device. It has carried on to this day in a small way as an insignia
of rank in most departments - one trumpet for lieutenant, two for a
captain, and crossed gold trumpets up to five in number to signify
chief of department.
Trumpets
carried on from the volunteer days to the beginnings of the
professional departments. The rank of chief held even more power in
the paid departments because firefighting was now a "job" and the
firefighters' livelihoods rested on their job performance. The
steam-powered fire engine made paid departments possible due to the
smaller number of men needed, but even the reduced number responding
had to run alongside the horse-drawn rigs until another means of
transportation could be devised. Hose wagons and running boards on
the hook and ladders took care of everyone except the guy in charge,
the chief.
When New
York City's paid fire department was formed in 1865, all battalion
chiefs had to travel on foot to fire scenes. That rule remained in
effect for 12 years, until a horse and buggy were purchased for each
chief, except for two battalions in lower Manhattan where it was
believed traffic congestion made buggies ineffective. The Brooklyn
Fire Department outfitted its chiefs with horse-drawn rigs at the
same time.
The first
motorized chief's car in the country was the 1901 Locomobile donated
to the FDNY by Chief of Department Edward Croker. This
electric-powered runabout was promptly nicknamed the "Black Ghost"
by newspaper reporters. With the reliability of automobiles still
unproven, the chief kept a horse and buggy ready at all times.
Fire chiefs
were now arriving on scene in a timely fashion, but not much else
had changed - orders were still being shouted through trumpets or
being delivered by runners.
In Great
Britain, one of the most progressive and ingenious chief fire
officers of all times, James Braidwood, developed a communication
system of his own. Braidwood was 26 years old when he became the
chief officer of the Edinburgh, Scotland, Fire Brigade. Seven years
later, he was hired away from Edinburgh by the London Fire Brigade,
becoming that department's first chief.
While chief
of Edinburgh in 1830 (his title was actually Master of
Fire-Engines), the young officer wrote a book describing his
theories on apparatus and firefighting. His fireground command
system worked this way:
"Amidst the
noise and confusion which more or less attend all fires, I have
found considerable difficulty in being able to convey necessary
orders to the fireman in such a manner as not to be liable for
misapprehension. I tried a speaking-trumpet; but finding it of no
advantage, it was speedily abandoned. It appeared to me indeed, that
while it increased the sound of the voice, by the deep tone which it
gave, it brought it into greater accordance with the surrounding
noise. I tried a boatswain's call, which I have found to answer much
better. Its shrill piercing note is so unlike any other sound
usually heard at a fire, that it immediately attracts the attention
of the firemen. By varying the calls, I have now established a mode
of communication not easily misunderstood, and sufficiently precise
for the circumstances to which it is adapted, and which I now find
to be a very great convenience."
Braidwood
then listed various coded signals that directed specific companies
to work the engine, add hose, turn left or right, move forward, stop
or take other actions. In all, there were 36 calls the chief used on
the fireground to control operations. Despite the young English
chief's discarding of the speaking trumpet, in the U.S., it was the
state-of-the-art fire communication tool for many years.
In an
attempt to better fire communications in the FDNY, Croker issued
Special Order Number 83 on September 1, 1900. It stated, "For the
purposes of issuing orders, while in the performance of duty at
fires, in a proper manner, and to avoid the confusion generally
resulting, from different members of a company shouting orders at
the top of their voices, megaphones have been placed in various
truck companies in the Borough of Manhattan, and the following
instructions regarding their use at fires will be carefully
observed:
"On all
occasions in the future, when at a fire, a megaphone will be taken
to the roof, for the purpose of conveying messages from the roof to
the street by members of the Department, and the practice heretofore
existing of shouting orders will be discontinued. Whatever orders
are necessary to be given, will be sent through the megaphone, in a
slow, loud and distinct voice. Chief officers issuing orders from
the street, while in command of a fire will also use the megaphone
wherever possible, instead of shouting their orders, or sending
messengers."
Exactly how
long the megaphone experiment was in effect is not known.
Photographs of fire scenes from that era do not show chiefs with
megaphones, so like many other ideas it was tried and eventually
things reverted back to the way they were before - shouting at the
top of one's voice.
Communications and fireground command would stay relatively the same
for many years. In December 1913, the FDNY experimented with a
two-way wireless telegraph system between the Manhattan Fire
Dispatcher's Office and the fireboat James Duane. Although it proved
successful, the idea was abandoned due to the around-the-clock
manpower needed to keep the system up.
Boston had
a similar idea, but instead of a telegraph the department installed
two-way radios between the dispatcher and the city's fireboat. This
first fire department radio system went into service in October
1923. The question of the reliability of radios and the restrictive
federal laws governing the radio usage made the adoption of radios
by the fire service a slow process. Some departments installed
radios in chiefs' cars, but many of them used police department
frequencies.
With the
introduction of Rescue Company 1 to the FDNY's firefighting force in
1915, another step was taken toward control of operating forces
remote from the officer in charge. One of the tools that made the
rescue company unique was the Draeger smoke helmet brought from
Europe and adopted for use by the new unit.
The company
was outfitted with eight smoke helmets, four of which were on its
rig and the others left in quarters in reserve. Two of the eight
smoke helmets were equipped with telephones inside them and
connected to a telephone set outside the affected area by 250 feet
of wire. The officer could clearly communicate with his men as they
worked their way deep into a building.
One use of
the helmet at that time was to let a rescue fireman enter areas
filled with ammonia fumes (used for refrigeration) and shut off the
necessary valves to stop the leak. The telephone system worked well,
except for difficulty in keeping the telephone wires from becoming
snagged on obstacles. Beyond the two helmets with telephones, the
rest of the fire department operated in smoke with mask protection
and without direct contact with chiefs.
Even in the
1930's, the control a chief was able to achieve at any incident was
about the same as in his father's time - and even his
great-grandfather's time, for that matter. Horses had come and gone
and motorized firefighting equipment was bigger and more powerful
than ever, but the ability to communicate at the scene of a fire and
thereby control the operation was still limited. In the late 1930's,
loudspeakers were placed on some fireboats and rescue-type trucks.
These had limited success in conveying orders of vital importance,
such as backing out of buildings in danger of collapsing, but the
definitive answer was yet to be found.
In
September 1939, the FDNY set up a radio laboratory in a workshop
above the quarters of Engine Company 39 and Ladder 16 in Manhattan.
Primary experiments involved the development of pack radio equipment
for transmission of messages within a fire area. The department also
conducted a thorough search of the commercial radio gear available
at the time, but found none that could perform as needed at the
scene of a fire.
The
department's standards held that a radio must be lightweight,
compact and simple to operate, have a long operational life, leave
the operator's hands free, be able to communicate with other similar
packs at an operation, be sturdy, reasonably waterproof and
dependable, have sufficient range to cover a fire area, and be easy
to service and adjust.
Considering
the advanced system of communications we have grown used to in
recent years (pagers the size of a deck of playing cards and cell
phones that fit easily in your pocket), it is interesting to note
what was state-of-the-art in 1940. After field trials, a two-way
radio was developed by the FDNY radio lab.
The pack
set, or as it was more popularly called the "Walkie-Talkie,"
operated on an ultra-high frequency. The set contained dry-cell
batteries that gave it an operational life of between 60 and 100
hours. The pack fit on the back of a firefighter, who used
headphones to monitor transmissions and then answer via a
microphone.
The set was
used with great success at many incidents, including ship fires. One
set was used by a chief aboard the S.S. Lafayette (also known as the
liner Normandie) during multiple-alarm fire in February 1942.
(Firefighters on the deck of the burning ship also teamed up with
Navy personnel and used flags in a semaphore system to communicate
with units on land.)
A
significant event in communications occurred in 1948, when
scientists at Bell Labs invented the transistor. This development
made smaller, more powerful and less expensive portable radios a
reality. Technology advanced in leaps and bounds in the 1950's and
'60's as portable radios began appearing all over the fireground.
The fire
chief now faced a new problem - too much information for one person
to handle at one time. The FDNY addressed this problem when it
placed two International "Metro" vans in service as field
communication units.
In the
1970's, a series of large-area wildland fires burned through
Southern California. The fires raced across jurisdictional
boundaries and involved state and federal forests. Numerous fire
departments and other agencies became involved, but the lack of a
common plan of operations and difficulty in one agency communicating
with another caused a variety of problems.
After the
fires, a number of the involved agencies worked together to develop
a plan to better manage these emergencies. Their plan evolved to the
incident command system now widely used within the fire service to
manage fires and other emergency situations.
The fire
chief who had become a fireground commander is now an incident
commander (IC) and must coordinate the function areas under his
command. To better equip the IC, many departments added large
command post vehicles to their fleets for major operations. This
proved to be beneficial to the fireground commander, but not every
department can afford a large vehicle to serve in this capacity.
Many fire chiefs also realized that because most alarms do not
escalate to major proportions, a large vehicle was not needed. Many
departments have upgraded the chief's car from simple transportation
to a command vehicle, using custom command modules. Some departments
have even expanded this concept to create specialized
first-responding medical vehicles.
We've come
a long way, from speaking trumpets to faxes, but one constant is the
firefighter willing to battle the flames. Looking at modern command
posts and all equipment available to fireground commanders, it's
still nice to see the crossed gold trumpets on their collars.
About the Author: Paul Hashagen, is a fire service historian and
author of several books about the history of firefighting. He is an
FDNY firefighter assigned to Rescue Company 1 in Manhattan and an
assistant chief of the Freeport, NY, Fire Department.
