First paid fire dept. ?

[SPIPER]

Cincinnati OH claims to be the first paid fire dept. in 1853. But I have found that Boston MA had a paid fire chief and firefighters in 1679. So who was actually the first paid fire dept. in the United States?

[John Dibacco]

SPIPER - Are you differentiating between having a paid chief and volunteers (combination) and having a fully (all) paid department when you are talking of the 1st paid department?

My department (Norfolk, Va) became fully paid in 1871. Up to that point, was multiple volunteer depts. We claim (right or wrong) that we are the 3rd oldest, FULLY PAID department in the U.S. I'd be curious about when others became fully paid and also when the first paid/volunteer (combination) depts started.

John

[SPIPER]

Boston apparently had a paid chief and 12 paid firefighters.

[Box2565]

It's hard to answer that question as you have to define what you mean by a paid department. I personally think that since Boston was the first to pay any that they should be noted as first.

If you want to define a paid department as to when they became fully paid then the answer can really get twisted. There are still 10 volunteer fire companies in New York City, does that mean that New York is not fully paid?

Anyway, the way it is now described around Cincinnati is that the CFD was the first to combine paid firefighters, steam fire engines, and horses. Cincinnati had volunteers on some companies in outlying, newly annexed areas up until 1920 or so!

[Box2565]

By the way, CFD celebrates their 150th anniversary as a paid department next year!

[CaptOldTimer]

Cincinnati, OH 4/1/1853
St. Louis, MO 9/14/1857
Louisville, KY 6/1/1858
Chicago, IL 8/2/1858
Richmond, VA 10/25/1858
Boston, MA 1859
Memphis, TN 1859
Indianapolis, IN 10/1859
Baltimore, MD 12/1859
Detroit, MI 1860
Nashville, TN 7/24/1860
Dayton, OH 1864
District of Columbia 5/19/1864
Covington, KY 7/7/1864
FDNY 6/24/1865
San Francisco, CA 4/3/1866
Philadelphia, PA 12/1870
Norfolk, VA 12/15/1871
Denver, CO 12/1880
Tacoma, WA 1880
Charleston, SC 1/1/1882
Atlanta, GA 1882
Spokane, WA 1884
Los Angeles, VA 1/12/1886
Jacksonville, FL 7/15/1886
Evansville, IN 1888
San Deigo, CA 8/15/1889
New Orleans, LA 12/15/1891
Salem, OR 1893
Seattle, WA 1894
Houston, TX 1895
Tampa, FL 5/10/1895


This was extracted from the department’s web pages......

[hwoods]

It took you 5 years and 3 months to come up with that??.....

Sudden Thought............. Were you among Richmond's First Hires??

[smokeeater110]

Orlando Florida 1885

[smokeeater110]

Orlando was a voly dept until 1923.

[CFD Hazards]

Don't know the date but I thought Providence was the first paid department in the country.

[CaptOldTimer]

It took you 5 years and 3 months to come up with that??.....

Sudden Thought............. Were you among Richmond's First Hires??

Harve, like you I am "almost" old enough to be one of the first!!

Actually I was doing a Google search for something else and found this thread. I posted that information that I had. I actually had compiled this for part of a fire science project about 20 or so years ago.

As I said, the data came from departments web sites through the city or county sites. So therefore if there wasn't any history page indicated or a paid career department date shown, I didn't include them. If it isn’t posted then I can not show the information.

You would probably be surprised that there are a lot of fire department web sites that do not have a history page or even a date indicating a career paid beginning.


I did locate Providence, RI under their IAFF Local page showing their career start date of March 1, 1854.

[hwoods]

Harve, like you I am "almost" old enough to be one of the first!!

Actually I was doing a Google search for something else and found this thread. I posted that information that I had. I actually had compiled this for part of a fire science project about 20 or so years ago.

As I said, the data came from departments web sites through the city or county sites. So therefore if there wasn't any history page indicated or a paid career department date shown, I didn't include them. If it isn’t posted then I can not show the information.

You would probably be surprised that there are a lot of fire department web sites that do not have a history page or even a date indicating a career paid beginning.


I did locate Providence, RI under their IAFF Local page showing their career start date of March 1, 1854.

I'm sure you caught my humor in the first post. That is quite an idea for a research project though. Maybe I should try it for my EFO...........

[JJensenJr]

Galveston Fire Department
Galveston, Tx.
1885

First paid department in Texas.

[Catch22]

Joplin, MO 1881. Combined (IIRC) three different vollie departments.

[ChicagoFF]

It's hard to answer that question as you have to define what you mean by a paid department. I personally think that since Boston was the first to pay any that they should be noted as first.

If you want to define a paid department as to when they became fully paid then the answer can really get twisted. There are still 10 volunteer fire companies in New York City, does that mean that New York is not fully paid?

Anyway, the way it is now described around Cincinnati is that the CFD was the first to combine paid firefighters, steam fire engines, and horses. Cincinnati had volunteers on some companies in outlying, newly annexed areas up until 1920 or so!

So they were not fully paid? Or were they?

[DennisTheMenace]

It's hard to answer that question as you have to define what you mean by a paid department. I personally think that since Boston was the first to pay any that they should be noted as first.

If you want to define a paid department as to when they became fully paid then the answer can really get twisted. There are still 10 volunteer fire companies in New York City, does that mean that New York is not fully paid?

Yes but those Volunteers are supplemental staffing. NYC has full minimal staffing 24/7 and has had such for over 100 years now.

[FFFRED]

It's hard to answer that question as you have to define what you mean by a paid department. I personally think that since Boston was the first to pay any that they should be noted as first.

If you want to define a paid department as to when they became fully paid then the answer can really get twisted. There are still 10 volunteer fire companies in New York City, does that mean that New York is not fully paid?

Those Volunteer companies aren't part of the FDNY. The FDNY is paid...those volunteers largely exist in a vacuum of time and circumstance. They aren't part of us.

PS-It is over 140+ years.

FTM-PTB

[ChicagoFF]

PS-It is over 140+ years.

FTM-PTB

Thats it? New guys....

[FirefighterJKW]

Cincinnati Fire Dept. 1st in the nation. The first fully paid FD in the country, also, the first FD to provide public ambulance service.
http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/cityfire/pages/-6664-/

[ChicagoFF]

Cincinnati Fire Dept. 1st in the nation. The first fully paid FD in the country, also, the first FD to provid public ambulance service.
http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/cityfire/pages/-6664-/

But the question was posed - did they have volunteers covering areas after that date? Still no answer....