|
Until the middle of the nineteenth century, volunteer fire
companies provided the chief form of fire protection. Supporting
these companies were occasional state and city laws, such as a 1787
act in the Maryland legislature requiring every householder to
maintain two leather buckets near the front entrance and a 1799
municipal ordinance prohibiting the erection of wooden dwellings. The
municipality also supplied appropriations to the companies for
equipment and supplies. By 1834 there were fifteen volunteer
companies, and by 1858 twenty-two.
Although the volunteer companies were the only method of fire
protection, they hardly constituted a very effective system. They
often engaged in fights with each other, and on several occasions
these conflicts sparked riots. Moreover, few of the companies were
adequately equipped or trained. In 1834 representatives of each of
the companies formed the Baltimore United Fire Department to regulate
fire protection, but most of the major problems persisted.
Twenty-four years later, the municipal government established a
professional fire department that has remained in existence to the
present, governed by a board of commissioners.
Records Summary
At the time of this writing, the archives has relatively few
records of the department. The most significant materials are the
service records of about six thousand fire fighters who served from
1862 to 1967 (series 1). Information in the records includes name,
residence, date of birth, date leaving service, and occasionally date
of death. A name index is available for all individuals listed in the
files. Records of fire fighters who are deceased or who entered the
service over seventy-five years ago may be viewed without restriction.
Series
Service Records. 1862-1967. 3 reels of microfilm. Index.
Restricted.
Arranged alphabetically by name.
Fire Incendiary Bureau Preliminary and Suspicious
Investigation Reports, 1938-present.
Arranged chronologically.
Insurance Records. 1874-78. 1.25 lin. in. (1 vol.).
Arranged chronologically.
38
|
