170 years ago in Prague it was decided to establish the first professional fire brigade in the territory of the Czech Republic

In Prague, on March 23rd, 1853, a congregation of municipal elders decided to establish a congregation for street cleaning and fire protection.

The Prague City Archives hides many treasures. Also documents that reveal how the fire brigade was created.

The foundation of the future fire brigade became the so-called city cleaners. In 1840, there were twelve ordinary members and one leader of the cleaners group. The found report evaluates the situation before the establishment of the fire brigade in Prague from 1839 to the establishment of the fire brigade in 1853.

The report compares, for example, the costs associated with the establishment of the fire brigade in 1853 with the costs of the previous activity of the cleaners. It also contains the first outline of the rights and duties of the firefighters, including the expected numerical state.

From the text it can be seen that this report of 23rd March 1853 has become the basis for the Decree (18th July 1853), with which the Prague municipality has set up a service of urban street cleaners and firefighters and declared recruitment to the department, this congregation became the foundation of today’s Fire Rescue brigade of the capital city of Prague.

The industry started to grow rapidly in Prague, so it is no wonder that there were growing calls for the establishment of a paid fire brigade. In March 1853 the Municipality decided to take on its own direction street cleaning, on Malá Strana to start with. The fire brigade began its activity on 16 August 1853, when the first 11 firefighters/sweepers were hired. By the end of August 1853 it had then appointed a total of 30 firefighters/sweepers, whose supervisor was chosen the town supervisor Alois Pasta.

Eight people were to be trained to operate a syringe, the others as fire-fighting helpers. And the first professional fire brigade in Prague was born.

Commander Pasta was subsequently sent on an experienced mission to Berlin. A city that was quite comparable to Prague in the development of the fire brigade. Berlin was at that time only the capital of the developing Prussia, where the professional brigade was founded in 1851.

 

Berlin Commander Scabell was a competent organizer, and Alois Pasta had much to learn from him. It was obvious that he took his command in Prague responsibly, but from the beginning he had great difficulty with his superiors. Moreover, he soon recognized that thirty people was too few for the city, and eight to handle a syringe even less.

He made a lot of effort to improve his training and equipment; he is the author of one of the oldest fire-fighting writings, ÜberSchadenfeuer und Feuerlöschen (On harmful fires and their extinguishing).

As the historical documents show, the brigade from the outset proved successful in controlling fires, but conflicts with the magistrate resulted in the departure of the Pasta commander from office.

This was at a time when the firefighters, differing from the sweepers by the red band on their shoulders, were based in the Malostranská Court in Letenská Street, where they had several rooms reserved for themselves.

In November 1853, a trainee of the economic office of the Municipality, Václav Soukup, took charge. Among other innovations he introduced the title of fire master.

The councillors at that time were thinking about how to increase the number of firefighters without great financial cost. A solution was found – backup fire guards were abolished and the freed men could strengthen the ranks of the brigade.

Suddenly a new problem arose: where to place 68 members of the department. The place was found in the Old Town municipal court. And because a few firefighters remained in the original station, so the central and auxiliary station were created.

At that time, the corps had 6 Chief Firefighters, 24 syringe operators and 38 firefighters. As the obligation to sweep the streets continued to apply, the supervision of the sweepers was carried out by the Chief Firefighters.

At the start of the fire, each sweeper was required to attend the scene of the accident. He also had to attend training and sacrifice one of the two days off in the week to hold the fire guard.

Today’s equipment for firefighters could not be dreamed of. The mechanical, chemical and technical service is currently at a high level, yet shovels and brooms (engineering tools) remain on fire trucks as well. The most numerous interventions are technical interventions, assistance in road accidents and environmental protection.