Museums of fire protection in the cities of Russia. History of fire protection

Among all the disasters that visited distressed Russia, fires were the most frequent, since throughout the centuries the main building material from which urban and, especially, rural buildings were built, was forest. Whether they were sent from above by people's sins, or were caused by someone's mistake, they always had to fight with them, and therefore the history of fire protection is inseparable from the history of our country.

Museums, telling about the fight with fire

Exposition of fire protection museums operating throughout the country tells about the ways in which the development of firefighting in Russia was going on. The largest of them, created in 1957, is in Moscow on Durova Street. In the halls of the museum are collected artifacts, which recreate the history of the fight against fire from the times of Ivan the Terrible to our days.

No less interesting is the Museum of Fire Protection in St. Petersburg, located at Bolshoy Prospect VO, 73. Despite the fact that the review of the history of firefighting in it covers a period beginning with a few later times - the era of Peter I , Its expositions are also of great interest and contain many unique exhibits. In addition, fire protection museums are established in Samara, Yekaterinburg, Yaroslavl, Ivanovo and Krasnodar. Each of them contains materials on the development of not only the local fire service, but also the fight against fire in Russia.

In general, the collections of fire protection museums in Moscow, St. Petersburg, as well as a number of other cities in the country and the funds of historical archives make it possible to recreate a picture of how Russians have long tried to resist the fire calamities that regularly visited them.

Gosudarev's decrees aimed at combating fire

The history of fire protection, reflected in the archival documents that have come down to us, originates from a number of decrees issued by the Grand Duke of Moscow, Ivan III, the grandfather of Ivan the Terrible, after a terrible fire that devastated the capital in 1472.

In them and subsequent normative acts, which were already in the Romanov era, it was strictly enforced in cities (and especially in the capital) to erect stone structures as far as possible and build them at a safe firefighting distance from each other.

In addition, a number of other measures aimed at preventing fires were listed. As for the violators of the highest edicts, and even more so of those who became the perpetrators of the fires, the strictest penalties were provided.

However, how many did not bleed on the squares of the townspeople, who, despite the tsar's decree, dared to cook food at home in the hot summer months and build fire in the premises, and the eternal Russian "perhaps" always prevailed over the elementary rules of fire safety. As a result, the fiery calamities sometimes took on such an awesome scale that they destroyed whole cities.

Scary fires of past centuries

Suffice it to mention only a few events, which are told about the expositions of almost all the above-listed fire protection museums ─ such serious consequences they had in the life of the state. First of all, it is a fire of 1212, which destroyed within a few hours 4,300 yards of Veliky Novgorod. About one thousand citizens became victims of it.

In 1354, the fire that engulfed Moscow in two hours drew into the smoking ashes not only the Kremlin, but also the adjoining villages. The fire that took place in 1547 was also fatal to the capital. Then in his fire several thousand inhabitants of the Holy See perished.

Birth of the Russian Fire Service

The response to the challenge, thrown by the raging elements, was the creation in Russia of special fire brigades. For the first time, they were established on the basis of a document developed in 1649 with the participation of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and entitled "The Order of the City Deanery". According to his provisions, professional fire brigades appeared in all large cities of the country, employees of whom were paid a fixed salary.

The same decree ordered fire brigade staff members, except for round-the-clock duty, to carry out preventive trips for areas under their jurisdiction and identify possible violators of the rules for dealing with fire. In addition, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich concerned himself with the creation of means of combating fire, ordering the use of water pipes for this purpose, which became the prototype of the current hoses.

A new stage in the development of the national fire service

The years of the reign of Peter I became a period when the organization of fire protection rose to a new qualitative level. In particular, the fire equipment was modernized, many of which the king specially purchased abroad. Thanks to him at the disposal of Russian firemen, the first pumps appeared, equipped with leather sleeves and copper hoses.

Then, at the Admiralty of St. Petersburg, the first fire department was established in Russia. In Moscow, the regular fire department appeared relatively late. The decree on its creation was published by Alexander I only in 1804.

Fighting fire in the XIX century

The next sovereign, Nicholas I, ascended to the throne in 1825, made sure that the regular fire service ceased to be destiny only of St. Petersburg and Moscow. With it, almost all large populated areas of the country appeared units to combat fire.

An integral part of each fire department, the tower, in many cases became the highest construction of the city from which it was possible to survey all nearby villages. In case of detection of a fire, a special flag and signal balls were raised on it, the number of which was directly proportional to the size of the source of ignition.

By that time, fire equipment was also improved. Many of his original samples can be seen both in the Moscow Fire Museum and in the displays of other similar complexes. In the 19th century, the establishment of plants in Moscow and St. Petersburg that established the production of not only fire pumps and sleeves to them, but also all associated equipment: folding ladders, crannies, and also the protective equipment necessary for firefighting, contributed to the equipment of fire units.

The old fire helmets, issued in the period of the XIX and the beginning of the XX century, are an indispensable attribute of almost all museums of similar themes. An integral part of their exposures is also rigging, which came into use right away, as soon as fire trucks began to use cars that replaced horse power.

Fire-fighting measures taken by the Bolsheviks

In the St. Petersburg Museum of Fire Protection a special place was given to organizing the fight against fire in the post-revolutionary years. There are presented original documents telling about the establishment in April 1918 of the Commissariat for Insurance and Fire Fighting. His first leader was MT Elizarov.

Thanks to his efforts, an extensive network of fire stations, equipped with the latest equipment for that time, was created urgently in the country. The following year, the government took additional measures to strengthen fire brigades. The decree of the Council of People's Commissars in the structure of the NKVD, the most powerful organization of that period, established the Central Department, which headed the leadership of fire services throughout the country.

History of firefighting in the Soviet period

In 1924, the first fire-fighting technical school was opened in Leningrad, which laid the foundation for the creation of the personnel base on which the formation of a national fire safety supervision system was going on in the future. The important place in it was occupied by the structures created subsequently on the initiative of the Komsomol and various trade-union organizations. The most famous of them was the Voluntary Fire Brigade, whose branches soon appeared all over the country.

The heroic page in the history of the fire service was the years of the Great Patriotic War, in which its fighters were at the forefront of the fight against fire. It is known that in only one Leningrad more than 2 thousand of them gave their lives. And it is not accidental that in May 1945 the fighters of the fire units marched along the Red Square along with all combat units.

Celebration in honor of people of the heroic profession

Nowadays the fire service has turned into a complex multifunctional system capable of localizing and then extinguishing fires of any complexity. In its arsenal there are the latest achievements of modern technology. As a sign of respect for the people of this dangerous but very necessary profession at all times, the government of the country established a holiday in 1999 ─ the All-Russian Day of Fire Protection.