Fire-fighting
Original title: Incêndios (Extinção de)
History of fire-fighting in Funchal, from the council's first pump in 1837 to the founding of the Volunteer Fire Brigade in 1889.
The municipal fire-fighting service in the city began in 1837, when the Council spent 460,000 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis) on a pump ordered from London through the firm of João de Oliveira & C.ª.
Before 1837, fires were fought with pumps belonging to private individuals, and the men who operated them were exempted from service in the National Guard so that their help could be counted on when needed.
Only in 1889 did the fire service begin to be run properly, thanks to the creation of the Companhia de Bombeiros Voluntários do Funchal (Funchal Volunteer Fire Brigade). Before then, the wildest follies were committed during fires: mirrors and crockery were even thrown from the windows of burning buildings to prevent the fire from destroying them!
In August 1878, during a fire in a building on Rua da Alfândega that housed the bakery and confectioner’s of the Englishman Payne, so much glass and crockery was hurled into the street that some supposed the damage done to the building by human hands had been greater than that caused by the fire.
At the end of the volume, or in a supplement to this work, we shall give a more detailed account of the improvements made to the fire service, and in particular we shall discuss the Volunteer and Municipal Fire Brigades that have been organised in this city for that purpose.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 03-
Funchal council began a municipal fire service, buying a pump from London for 460$000 réis.
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A fire at Payne's bakery in Rua da Alfândega, Funchal, caused less damage than the glass and crockery thrown during it.
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The Companhia de Bombeiros Voluntários do Funchal was created; the council approved its regulations on 4 April and appointed its personnel on 11 April, greatly improving fire-fighting.
Place
Places mentioned · 03
Abroad
- Funchal
City whose fire service is described.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- London
United Kingdom. City from which the first municipal fire pump was ordered.
The British capital, the place of publication of many English works on Madeira, including those of the du Canes, Embleton and Bloxam. Mason compared its humidity with Funchal's, and artillery for the Fortress of São Tiago came from there. It hosted the 1909 applied chemistry congress.
- Rua da Alfândega
Funchal. Street where the 1878 fire at Payne's bakery occurred.
Rua da Alfândega is a street in Funchal facing the customs house, where the town council moved in 1848 and the Associação Comercial was first installed in 1836. It later housed the Blandy offices and the English Club with its library, and saw a fire at Payne's bakery in 1878.
People
People mentioned · 02- João Francisco de Oliveira1761–1829
Head of the firm João de Oliveira & C.ª through which the council ordered its first fire pump from London in 1837.
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English baker and confectioner whose Rua da Alfândega premises caught fire in August 1878.