Boston Fire Department

The Boston Fire Department provides fire protection and first responder emergency medical services to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to fire protection, the department responds to a variety of emergencies such as medical emergencies, motor vehicle accidents, hazardous material spills, electrical hazards, floods, and construction accidents.

Boston Fire Department
"First in the Nation"
Operational area
Country United States
State Massachusetts
City Boston
Agency overview[1]
Established1678 (1678)
Annual calls74,191 (2013)
Employees1,611 (2014)
  • 1,467 uniformed firefighters
  • 68 fire alarm operators
  • 76 civilian members
Annual budget$187,849,951 (2014)
StaffingCareer
EMS levelFirst responder
IAFF718
Facilities and equipment[1][2]
Divisions2
Battalions9
Stations34
Engines33
Trucks20
Platforms2
Rescues2
HAZMAT1
USAR1
Wildland2
Fireboats2
Rescue boats2
Light and air1
Website
Official website
IAFF website

The Boston Fire Department was established as the first paid fire department in the United States, and is the largest municipal fire department in New England serving approximately 685,000 people living in a 47-square-mile (120 km2) area of the city proper and provides additional mutual aid to 32 surrounding communities of the Greater Boston Metro Area, including Logan International Airport.

In and around Boston, firefighters are sometimes referred to as Jakes.[3]

History

1631−1678

The Boston Fire Department traces its roots back to 1631, a year after the city was founded, when the first fire ordinance was adopted. In what then was the Massachusetts Bay Colony of the Kingdom of England, the city banned thatched roofs and wooden chimneys. However, it wasn't until 1653 that the first hand engine was appropriated to provide pressure for water lines.[4][5]

1678−1837

In 1678, the city founded a paid fire department, and hired Thomas Atkins to be the first fire chief.[4] On February 1, 1711, the town appointed a group of Fire Wards, each responsible for the operation and maintenance of equipment assigned to a region of the city.[6] The grandfather and great grandfather of Herman Melville, Thomas Melvill, served as a town fire ward from 1779 to 1825, and Allen Melvill, served as an early firefighter 1733 to 1761.[7][8] It was not until 1799 that the first leather fire hose was used, after being imported from England.[4]

1837−1910
Firemen's Memorial (Boston) by John A. Wilson

The department underwent its first reorganization in 1837 when the hand engine department reorganized, reducing the number of active engines to fourteen.[6] By December 31, 1858, the department had 14 hand engines, 3 hook and ladder carriages, and 6 hydrant (hose) carriages.[6] On November 1, 1859, Engine Co. 8 began service as the first steam engine in the department. The reorganization of 1859-60 replaced the department's 14 hand engines with 11 new steam engines, forming the departmental hierarchy still used today.[6]

The department was the first in the world to utilize the telegraph to alert fire fighters of an emergency, installing the system in 1851.[4] The first fire alarm was transmitted via the Fire Alarm Telegraph system on April 29, 1852.[6] The famous Boston fire of 1872 led to the appointment of a board of fire commissioners. The Boston Fire Department also provided assistance in the Great Chelsea Fire of 1908 and the Great Salem Fire of 1914.[6] The department purchased its first steam fireboat in 1873, and installed fire poles in the stations in 1881.[4]

1910−present

On July 29, 1910, the department purchased its first motorized apparatus. From 1914 until 1923, horse drawn engines as well as steam and motorized engine companies were in use in Boston. Ladder 24 was the last company to replace its horses in 1923 when it became motorized.[6] In 1925, the last fire horses were retired.[4] It wasn't until 1926 that the last steam engine was converted to a motorized engine.[6] The department first started using radio communication in 1925, installing radios in the fireboats, chiefs' cars, and rescue companies.[4]

By 1960, the department operated 48 engines, 29 ladders, 1 rescue, and 2 fireboats.[6] By the end of the decade, the standard 85-foot (26 m) ladder trucks were replaced by 100-foot (30 m) aerial ladders with tillers.[6]

In the 1970s, the department experimented with lime-green colored apparatus, but reverted to the traditional red in 1984, when the Department made the switch to E-One fire apparatus.[6] In the early 1980s, an arson ring caused over 600 fires, many reaching multiple-alarm status. The group was ultimately caught and convicted.[6]

Also in the early 1980s, the Department experienced a dramatic number of cutbacks due to budget cuts. The number of Engine Companies dropped from 43 to 33, the Fire Brigade was disbanded (only to be reopened in the mid-80's), the number of Ladder Companies went from 28 to 21, and one of the two Tower Companies was disbanded and reduced to a regular Ladder Company (bringing the total to 22 Ladder Companies). Rescue 2 was disbanded, but reorganized in 1986.

2007 Boston bomb scare

On January 31, 2007, the department, Boston Police, and the United States Department of Homeland Security had to act agile to dispose LED advertisements resembling the mooninite characters of the Cartoon Network show Aqua Teen Hungerforce for its movie which had premiered at the time, Aqua teen hunger force colon movie film for theaters as perpetrated by two males named "Sean Stevens" and "Steven Bardovsky". Both of them were hired by Turner Broadcasting, Interference, Inc., and Cartoon Network to display the aforementioned advertisements throughout the entire city and were mistaken for homemade explosives. A civil settlement was eventually reached with Turner, Interference, and Cartoon Network for some portion of the costs incurred by Boston Police and Department of Homeland Security in responding to the events. One of Cartoon Network's managerial staff also resigned in the aftermath.

On June 3, 2013, Chief Steve Abraira resigned citing public criticism from his deputies over his response to the Boston Marathon bombing.[9]

Organization

The Boston Fire Department has six divisions:[10]

Fire Suppression and rescue services
The most visible division of the department, this division provides the fire protection and rescue services for the city of Boston with uniformed firefighters being dispatched to and responding to a variety of emergencies.[11] The services provided include firefighting, first responder emergency medical services, hazardous materials response, vehicle extrication and other services. The department operates engine companies, ladder companies, and rescue companies, each providing distinctly separate services at a fire or other emergency.
Fire Prevention
This division is responsible for maintaining records, granting permits, conducting public education, and inspecting buildings.[12]
Training
This division supervises the development of the fire fighters from probation to retirement. Also, the division conducts research to improve techniques and equipment, evaluating new tools before their implementation. The Emergency Medical Services and the Safety Operations Unit are also within this division.[13]
Personnel
This division includes the Administration Section, Selection Unit, Medical Office, Personnel Assignments of Officer’s Section, and the Employees Assistant Program. The division keeps the records of each fire fighter, communicates with other departments, unions, and agencies, and hears grievances, disciplinary hearings, and appeals.[14]
Emergency Planning and Preparedness
This division was established in 1996 to replace the Special Services Division, providing the city with an Incident Command System, Office of Emergency Management, and Local Emergency Planning Committee.[15]
Special Operations Command
This division was established in 2001 with a goal of recommending training, deployment and equipment for the Boston Fire Department in all areas of rescue services including technical rescue, CBRNE/hazardous materials operations as well as Dive Team and Marine Unit operations.[16]

Fire Commissioners

Firehouses and apparatus
Engine Company 50, quartered in Charlestown, utilizing a spare apparatus
Ladder Company 15, quartered in the Back Bay
Quarters of Engine 10, Tower Ladder 3, Rescue 1, and C6(1st Division Chief) in Downtown.
Quarters of Engine 14, Ladder 4, and H1(Safety District Chief) in Roxbury.
Engine Company 41 Boston Fire Department in Allston neighborhood (2015)

The Boston Fire Department operates 2 Divisions and is split into 9 Districts total.[2] Division 1 is responsible for the northern part of Boston and is split into five districts (Districts 1, 3, 4, 6 and 11) while Division 2 commands the southern four districts (Districts 7, 8, 9 and 12).[2] Each Division is commanded by a Deputy Chief and each District is commanded by a District Chief, similar to a Battalion chief, who supervises 3-5 or more firehouses and their respective fire companies. There is also a Safety Chief, a district chief, who serves citywide as the Incident Safety Officer at fires and large-scale incidents.

The Marine Unit of the BFD is located at Burrough's Wharf in the North End and houses the 3 Fireboats or Marine Units. The Marine Unit responds to approximately 500−600 emergency calls annually.[17] The Boston Fire Department also operates a High-Pressure Pumping Station at 175 Kneeland St. in Downtown and contains 17 miles of underground piping throughout the Downtown area. The system can provide pressurized water to the many pressurized fire hydrants in the Downtown area.[18]

In addition to the firehouses, the BFD also operates a Special Operations Command/Haz-Mat. Facility at 108 Holton St. in Brighton, a Communications/Fire Alarm Dispatch Center at 1 Fenway in Roxbury, and an Administrative Headquarters/Motor Pool Facility at 115 Southampton St. in Roxbury. The Fire Academy is located on Moon Island.[19]

Engine Company Ladder Company Or Tower Ladder Company Special Unit Car or Chief Unit (District Chief, Division Chief or Safety Chief) Address Neighborhood District Division
Engine 2Ladder 19700 E. Fourth St.Telegraph Hill/South Boston61
Engine 3Special / Lighting Unit618 Harrison Ave.South End41
Engine 4Ladder 24Car 3 (District 3 Chief)200 Cambridge St.West End31
Engine 5Car 1 (District 1 Chief)360 Saratoga St.East Boston11
Engine 7Ladder 17Car 4 (District 4 Chief)200 Columbus Ave.Back Bay41
Engine 8Ladder 1392 Hanover St.North End31
Engine 9Ladder 2239 Sumner St.Maverick Square/ East Boston11
Engine 10Tower Ladder 3Rescue 1, Technical Support Unit 1, Collapse UnitChief 6 (Division 1 Chief)125 Purchase St.Downtown61
Engine 14Ladder 4H-1 (Safety Chief)174 Dudley St.Nubian Square/Roxbury72
Engine 169 Gallivan Blvd.Dorchester82
Engine 17Ladder 7Car 7 (District 7 Chief)7 Parish St.Meeting House Hill/Dorchester72
Engine 18Ladder 61884 Dorchester Ave.Ashmont/Dorchester82
Engine 20Dive Unit301 Neponset Ave.Neponset/Dorchester82
Engine 21641 Columbia Rd.Upham's Corner/Dorchester72
Engine 22Haz-Mat. Unit, Rehab. Unit700 Tremont St.South End41
Engine 24Ladder 2336 Washington St.Grove Hall/ Roxbury72
Engine 28Tower Ladder 10Technical Support Unit 2Chief 7 (Division 2 Chief)746 Centre St.Jamaica Plain92
Engine 29Ladder 11Car 11 (District 11 Chief)138 Chestnut Hill Ave.Brighton111
Engine 30Ladder 251940 Centre St.West Roxbury122
Engine 32Ladder 9525 Main St.Charlestown31
Engine 33Ladder 15941 Boylston St.Back Bay41
Engine 37Ladder 26560 Huntington Ave.Fenway/Roxbury92
Engine 39Ladder 18Decon. Unit 1Car 6 (District 6 Chief)272 D St.South Boston61
Engine 41Ladder 14460 Cambridge St.Allston111
Engine 42Rescue 2Car 9 (District 9 Chief)1870 Columbus Ave.Egleston Square/ Roxbury92
Engine 48Ladder 28Brush Unit 4860 Fairmount Ave.Cleary Square/ Hyde Park122
Engine 49209 Neponset Valley Pkwy.Readville/ Hyde Park122
Engine 5054 Winthrop St.Bunker Hill/ Charlestown31
Engine 51425 Faneuil St.Brighton111
Engine 52Ladder 29975 Blue Hill Ave.Dorchester82
Engine 53Ladder 16Car 12 (District 12 Chief)945 Canterbury St.Roslindale122
Engine 55Brush Unit 555115 Washington St.West Roxbury122
Engine 56Ladder 211 Ashley St.Orient Heights/ East Boston11
Marine Unit 1, Marine Unit 2, Marine Unit 3Burrough's WharfNorth End31

Radio call signs

Each division within the Boston Fire Department utilizes a series of alphabetical radio call signs to designate each unit within a certain division.[20]

Call Sign Division
AAssociated Organizations
BM.O.E.P.
CAdministrative Officers/Headquarters Staff
GEmergency Planning and Preparedness Division
HSpecial Operations Units
IInformation Technology Division
JSCUBA Team
KFire Prevention/Investigation Division
MMaintenance Section/Motor Pool
NField Services Unit
PBoston Police Department Unit's
SFire Alarm
TSpecial Operations Command
WTraining
XEmergency Medical Response Division

Notable Fires

Great Fire of 1760

The first "Great Fire" of Boston destroyed 349 buildings on March 20, 1760.

Great Fire of 1872
Main article: Great Boston Fire of 1872

The second "Great Fire" of Boston began on November 9, 1872. The fire destroyed 776 buildings, killed 13 people, and caused $75,000,000 in property damage.[4] The fire required mutual aid companies from as far away as New Haven, Connecticut and Manchester, New Hampshire.

Cocoanut Grove Fire
Main article: Cocoanut Grove fire

The Cocoanut Grove fire was the second-deadliest single-building fire in American history. At 10:15 PM on November 28, 1942 the fire began when a short in the electrical wiring ignited gas leaking from a faulty refrigeration unit.[21] The fire eventually claimed 490 lives, and injured 166 more.[21] Only the 1903 Iroquois Theatre fire in Chicago had a higher death toll at 605.

Vendome Hotel Fire
Main article: Hotel Vendome fire

At 2:35 PM on Saturday, June 17, 1972, an alarm from Box 1571 was received for the Hotel Vendome on Commonwealth Avenue in the Back Bay.[22] It took nearly three hours to get the 4-alarm blaze under control. At 5:28 PM, during overhaul operations, the southeast section of the building unexpectedly collapsed.[22] The collapse killed 9 Boston firefighters: Lieutenant Thomas J. Carroll (Engine 32), Lieutenant John E. Hanbury (Ladder 13), Firefighter Richard B. Magee (Engine 33), Firefighter Joseph F. Boucher (Engine 22), Firefighter Paul J. Murphy (Engine 32), Firefighter John E. Jameson (Engine 22), Firefighter Charles E. Dolan (Ladder 13), Firefighter Joseph P. Saniuk (Ladder 13) and Firefighter Thomas W. Beckwith (Engine 32); and injuring 8 more.[6] This fire was the worst tragedy in the history of the Boston Fire Department and one of the most deadly fires in the history of U.S. firefighting.

Beacon Street Fire

On the afternoon of March 26, 2014, firefighters responded to a report of a fire in a Beacon Street Brownstone in Boston's Back Bay.[23] It was reported that smoke was observed upon arrival. Shortly after crews entered the building, a mayday alarm was sounded as members of Engine 33 became trapped in the basement. Two firefighters, Lieutenant Edward Walsh of Engine Company 33 and Michael Kennedy of Ladder Company 15, were killed and 18 people were injured in this nine alarm fire.[24]

gollark: No, lambda calculus is just working on abstract lambda thingies, it's a simple model for computation which is also kind of useless.
gollark: Meanwhile, GPT-3, OpenAI's latest GPT text generation thing, has *175 billion* parameters and uses, what, tens of gigabytes of memory?
gollark: No, lambda calculus is a relatively simple model you can understand fairly easily.
gollark: And with neural networks, you don't actually know *how* the network does its job, just that you feed in pixels and somehow get classification data out.
gollark: There is still not, as far as I know, an approach to detect what an object is other than just training neural networks on the task.

See also

References
  1. "Boston Fire Department Overview". Retrieved 2007-04-22.
  2. "Firehouse Locations". Boston Fire Department. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  3. "Why Are Boston Area Firefighters Called 'Jakes'?". News. 2019-04-24. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
  4. "Boston Fire Department History". Retrieved 2007-04-22.
  5. Brayley, Arthur Wellington (1889). A Complete History Of The Boston Fire Department ... From 1630 To 1888. Boston: John P. Dale & Co. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  6. "Boston Fire Museum, History of BFD". Archived from the original on 2007-08-22. Retrieved 22 April 2007.
  7. Francis Samuel Drake. Tea leaves: being a collection of letters and documents. Boston: A.O. Crane, 1884.
  8. Brayley, Arthur Wellington (1889). A Complete History of the Boston Fire Department. J. P. Dale.
  9. "Embattled Boston Fire Chief Steve Abraira resigns". boston.com. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
  10. "Boston Fire Department Divisions". Retrieved 2007-04-22.
  11. "Fire Suppression". Boston Fire Department.
  12. "Fire Prevention". Boston Fire Department.
  13. "Training". Boston Fire Department. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  14. "Personnel". Boston Fire Department. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  15. "Emergency Planning". Boston Fire Department. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  16. "Special Operations". Boston Fire Department. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  17. "Boston Fire Historical Society". Bostonfirehistory.org. Archived from the original on 2013-11-12. Retrieved 2014-04-08.
  18. "Boston Fire Historical Society". Bostonfirehistory.org. 1921-12-19. Archived from the original on 2013-11-12. Retrieved 2014-04-08.
  19. http://firenews.org/mass/b/boston/stations/bostonstations.html
  20. "BFD Radio System". Angelfire.com. 2011-03-01. Retrieved 2014-04-08.
  21. Reilly, William Arthur (1943-11-19), Report concerning the Cocoanut Grove fire, November 28, 1942, Boston Fire Department, retrieved 2010-12-02
  22. Mochen, Kevin (15 November 2012). "10-15: Tragedy On Com Ave: The Collapse Of The Hotel Vendome". Fire Engineering Magazine. 2012 (11). Retrieved 27 March 2015.
  23. "2 firefighters killed in Boston blaze". CNN.com. Retrieved 2014-04-08.
  24. McPhee, Michele (June 2014). "Into the Fire". Boston Magazine. Retrieved 27 March 2015.
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