AGY-616 | Fire Brigades Board

Full description

Firefighting duties were performed by troops and convicts until the first fire fighting brigades were set up in the 1830's and 1840's by insurance companies. In the following decade a number of voluntary fire brigades were established in city and country areas. There were no designated areas in which the sundry brigades worked and the first brigade to reach the scene of the fire extinguished it and the property owners were obliged to pay for its services.(1)

"An Act to make better provision for the protection of Life and Property from Fire and for other purposes" received assent on 24 January, 1884 and came into force on 1 January, 1884. (2)

The Act constituted the Fire Brigades Board of six members. The chairman was to be appointed by the Governor and the other members were representatives of local government and insurance companies. Members held office for two years. (3)

The Board was a body corporate with a common seal capable of holding property and able to sue and be sued. The duties of the Board were "to establish and maintain an efficient Brigade for the extinction and suppression of fires and for protecting life and property from loss and damage" and to supply fire brigades with appropriate fire fighting equipment. (4) The Board took over the assets and property of the "Insurance Companies Fire Brigade".(5)

The Board appointed officers of the Fire Brigade fixed their salaries; framed regulations regarding members’ salaries, provided compensation for members injured in the course of their duties; and paid gratuities to those providing voluntary or special services. The Board organised the division of the Metropolitan area and establishment of stations or divisions subsidised Volunteer Fire Brigades. (6)

The Metropolitan Fire Brigade consisted of stations permanently staffed with paid employees. The stations of the Metropolitan Fire Brigades each had a distinguishing number, for example No. 3 Station - George Street North, Circular Quay. The stations outside the control of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade consisted of volunteer workers and the stations although named, were not numbered. (7) The Board prepared procedures for inquests into fires held by Coroners (8) and prepared an annual report to the Minister for tabling in Parliament. (8) The Board appointed one officer as Deputy Superintendent. (9)

The Governor appointed a Superintendent of Fire Brigades for the Metropolitan District whose salary was set by Parliament. (10) As well as directing the fighting of fires and making orders for each particular firefighting occasion, the Superintendent was to:
1) keep the names, ages and occupations and abode of members of the Brigade
2) summon firefighter members for practice once a week
3) take charge of equipment and to keep it in good order
4) inspect volunteer brigades or companies and to enforce compliance to regulations
5) have access to any building or premises which stored gunpowder, dynamite, or any dangerous explosive, kerosene or other inflammable material, empty crates, cases, sawdust, hay, and straw
6) have access to theatres and other buildings within the district used for public entertainment or public concourse in order to report to the Board whether fire regulations were being adhered to.(11)

Quarterly contributions to maintain the Brigade were shared three ways between the Fire Insurance Companies insuring property within the Metropolitan District, the Municipal Councils of the City of Sydney and those within the county of Cumberland, and the Colonial Treasurer who used moneys from the Consolidated Revenue Fund.(12)

Members of the Volunteer Fire Brigade within the metropolitan area were registered at the Office of the Board. They could be inspected by the Superintendent and were subject to his orders at the scene of a fire. Any member of a Volunteer Fire Brigade recognised by the Superintendent would be paid by the Board. (13)

The Fire Brigades Board which had been gazetted on 24 June, 1884 noted in its First Report that by 31 December, 1884 six volunteer Fire Brigades in the city and nine in the suburbs had been registered with the Board. (14) The efficiency of the Fire Brigades was hampered by delays in firefighters reaching fires and it was therefore planned to build stations with overnight accommodation.

The first temporary Headquarters of the Fire Brigades Board was set up in Bathurst Street in 1884 until the Central Fire Station was completed and opened in 1888 on a site in Castlereagh Street on the west side between Bathurst and Liverpool Streets. (15) A short-coming of the Act was that the Board did not have the power to purchase land or equipment except on the recommendation of the Colonial Treasurer with parliamentary approval.

On 3 September, 1885 the Superintendent of the Fire Brigades Board also became the Inspector of Kerosene. (16) The two titles were used together until 1893. (17) It would appear that subsequently the responsibility for Kerosene was absorbed into the Superintendent's position and the office of Inspector of Kerosene continued on the statute books until 1 July, 1916 when the Kerosene Act was repealed and the Inflammable Liquids Act, 1915 was proclaimed. (18)

The Fire Brigades Board was dissolved by the Fire Brigades Act, 1909 (Act No 9, 1909) which also created the Board of Fire Commissioners. The Act received assent on 1 December, 1909 and came into force on 1 January, 1910. (18)

A Note on the Establishment of Volunteer Fire Brigades
Some volunteer companies were founded prior to the establishment of the Fire Brigades Board. Some were no longer operational by 1884. Many became subsidised by the Fire Brigades Board and some later became stations with permanent staff.

Volunteer companies established included: Insurance Brigade (1851), No.1 Volunteer Company (1854, as Victoria Theatre Brigade), No.2 Volunteer Company (1856), Parramatta No.1 (1859), General Post Office Volunteer Brigade (1862), Redfern (1870, as Hudsons Volunteer Company), Newtown and Camperdown Volunteer Company (1874), Woollahra (1875), Balmain (1875), No.3 Volunteer Company (1875), No.4 Volunteer Company (1875), No.5 Volunteer Company (1875), No.6 Volunteer Company (1875), Glebe (1877), Manly (1887), St Leonards (1877), Paddington No.1 (1878), Waterloo (1879), City Volunteer Fire Company (1879), City Fire Escape Volunteer Company (also known as Hook and Ladder) (1880), Kent Volunteer Company (Tooth and Company) (1880), North City Volunteer Company (1880), Burwood (pre-1884), Petersham (pre-1884), Surry Hills (pre-1884), Pyrmont and Ultimo Volunteer Company (1881), Alexandria (1882), Theatre Royal Volunteer Company (1883), Parramatta No.2 (1884), Standard Brewery Volunteer Company (1884), Waverley (1884), Paddington No.2 (Paddington Brewery) (1886), Woollahra No.2 Volunteer Company (1886), Darlington (1887), Leichhardt (1887), Ashfield (1888), Randwick (1890), Rockdale (1890), Granville (1891), Drummoyne (1892), North Botany (later Mascot) (1892), Rookwood (later Lidcombe) (1892), Kogarah (1895), Sydney Railway Volunteer Fire Brigade (1895), Hurstville (1897), Richmond (1898), Liverpool (1898), East Willoughby (later Willoughby) (1905), and Mortdale (1908).

ENDNOTES
(1) Australian Encyclopaedia Angus and Robertson vol. 4 pp. 67-69
(2) Fire Brigades Act 1884 [47 Vic, No. 3], s. 25
(3) Ibid, s.1
(4) Ibid, s.4
(5) Ibid, s.5
(6) Ibid, s.6
(7) Inferred from Brigades Board Annual Report for the year ended 1893 p. 2 (State Records 14/ 1593)
(8) Fire Brigades Act 1884, s.5 (vii)
(9) Ibid, s.7
(10) Ibid, s.8
(11) Ibid, s.9-10
(12) Ibid, s.13
(13) Ibid. s. 19
(14) Fire Brigades Board First Report, pp. 2-3 in NSW Votes and Proceedings 1885-86 volume. 2 p. 926
(15) Ibid.
(16) NSW Government Gazette 4 September 1885 p573.
(17) Public Service List, 1893 p.
(18) NSW Government Gazette 23 June, 1916 p. 3514
(19) Fire Brigades Act [Act No. 9 , 1909] Part I

REFERENCES:
Concise Guide 2nd edition 1992 D- F "Fire Brigades Board"
Colin Adrian, Fighting Fire, A Century of Service, 1884-1984. Sydney, George Allen & Unwin, 1984.
Sands' Sydney Directories, 1887-1910.
The New South Wales Railway Budget, 19 February 1896, p.130.