Fire Safety – A Brief History

At Triple Star Fire (http://www.triplestarfire.com/) we pride ourselves on supplying state-of-the-art fire safety equipment including the latest technology in fire alarm systems, all expertly installed and maintained by our industry leading engineers.

But fire safety wasn’t always cutting edge, in fact the early days of fire prevention and detection was, at best, rudimentary. Two hundred years ago fire alarms were very much do-it-yourself affairs. Communities sounded the alarm when a fire was spotted by blowing whistles, ringing church bells, shooting guns and just by shouting “fire”. You’d be hard pushed to call this a fire alarm system as such, it was more a natural human response to danger - that of panicking, shouting and making a noise! Somewhat effective but clearly a better, more systematic approach was needed.

The fire brigade in its earliest form was put together by a wealthy Roman family in 115BC - a team of 500 people that rushed to a fire at the first cry of alarm - but it wasn’t adopted in the UK until after the great fire of London, when insurance companies had private teams of fire fighters protecting their client’s homes. They would only tackle blazes at homes displaying the relevant mark to show they were paying the insurance company for fire protection. Fire fighting became wider spread in the 17^th century when the first fire engines appeared. As fire fighting was a commercial activity many people waited until the last minute to raise the alarm, to avoid paying the fee, leading to many fires raging out of control before a free fire brigade came into effect.

Having a fire brigade is one thing but detecting a fire and raising the alarm is quite another. With the advent of the telegraph came the possibility of communication and it was quickly adopted by communities to sound and send the alarm when a fire broke out. To report a fire in the neighbourhood a person would crank a handle on a fire alarm box that would send a message with the box´s number to a central headquarters who would relay the corresponding address of the box location to the fire brigade.

Detection devices came much later. The first electrical heat detector and smoke detector was patented in Birmingham in 1902 but the first “modern” smoke detector wasn’t operational until the 1930s. Until the mid 1960s, when solid state electronics made a cheap sensor possible, smoke detectors were the preserve of big businesses as they were the only people that could afford them.

So we’ve come a very long way over the years: not only have the technological advances made protecting your premises, your business and your staff possible, it has become affordable too. And to find the best value, highest quality fire alarm systems you need only contact us at Triple Star Fire (http://www.triplestarfire.com/) for access to the latest and best fire safety equipment, managed by the best engineers in the industry.

Editor’s Note: Triple Star Fire (http://www.triplestarfire.com/) is represented by the search engine advertising and digital marketing specialists Jumping Spider Media. Please direct all press queries to Louise Byrne. Email: louise@jumpingspidermedia.co.uk or call: +44 (0)20 3070 1959 / +34 952 783 637.