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Firefighting Research Paper

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Firefighting then and now, there has been many changes throughout the fire industry from clothing to protective equipment and breathing apparatus but it started with the Roman emperor Augustus and the bucket lines to put out fires, to state of the art fire trucks. That can hold thousands of gallons of water. Firefighting then and now, firemen dated all the way back to 24 BC. “The Roman emperor Augustus is credited with instituting a corps of fire- fighting vigils (“Watchmen”) in 24 BC”. He had regulations such as, checking and preventing fires. In this time, they would sound an alarm when they saw ay signs of fire. The number one piece of firefighting equipment in ancient Rome and early modern times was the bucket. Buckets were passed …show more content…

In 1836, Henry T. Gratacap designed the fire helmet that we still use today. His design had a reinforced dome- shaped leather helmet with a front brim and the brim in the back of the helmet had a long back tail. Todays firemen helmets closely resemble some of the first ones that were invented. Todays fire helmets are often yellow to be more visible and have florescent stickers on them so a fireman is more …show more content…

There were two rubber hoses connected to a mouthpiece that the firemen were able to inhale the fresh air from the rubber sacs on their backs. At that time firemen started wherein googles, leather hood, nose clamp and a whistle. Today self contained breathing apparatus also known SCBA, Todays SCBA has the same basic concept as the original, but now the tanks are made out of fiberglass. Todays bottles usually last up to a half hour depending on your breathing and how much manual labor you are doing. They still have two shoulder straps and a waist belt. Todays SCBA have monitors on them to tell you how much air you have in the tanks, they also have an alarm that if you don’t move within a certain period of time the air pack will go off and make a peeping noise to warn other firemen that you are in danger. The masks are air sealed so smoke does not get in and so your fresh air does not leak out, without a good seal your mask is worthless. Todays air packs often have reflective tape on them to be more visible.
Before there was horse drawn carts or fire trucks, firemen used bucket lines to put out fires by finding a water source and passing buckets filled with water to one another until they were close enough to throw the water on the fire to put

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