First in New Zealand

Press, 14 November 1985, Page 20

First in New Zealand

The Christchurch Fire Brigade is celebrating its 125th anniversary this week, and is the first brigade in the country to reach this landmark.

The anniversary events culminate on Saturday with a grand parade of appliances starting at 9.30 a.m. from the central fire station and proceeding to North Hagley Park by way of Kilmore Street.

More than 80 appliances will then take part in a mass water display alongside Victoria Lake, before being parked for public inspection.

The anniversary has also been recognised by the publication of a book that de-

tails the development of the service and will be on sale from the central fire station. The present-day national fire service — evolved from small, local, volunteer brigades — is divided into six regions. There are four in the North Island and two in the South Island, with Christchurch the centre for the fifth region, which stretches from north of the Waitaki River to Cook Strait. Within that region, and based at the same headquarters in Christchurch, is subdivision SA, stretching from Hinds to Rakaia and across to the main divide. Within that is the Christchurch District Brigade, one of 31 brigades in SA. Greater Christchurch is zone SAOI, which has 11 stations — six permanently manned and five volunteer. Between them, these stations have 30 appliances, 222 permanent firemen, 120 volunteers, and 40 support staff. They also have — besides trucks and cars —46 km of hose, 91 sets of breathing apparatus, and 16 pumps that can be operated from mains or streams. All this is a far cry from the beginnings of the service, back in 1860, when a volunteer fire brigade of 25 men was formed after a meeting on November 7. The first fire engine was donated by the Liverpool and London Insurance Company, which later became the Liverpool, London and Globe.

This first machine was a manual engine that was pulled and pumped by hand, and, in the next year, a second and larger engineof

the same type was bought by the Provincial Government.

This second one was housed in Market Place, now Victoria Square, while the first one was kept in Cashel Street.

The two-station system thus established lasted until 1913, six years beyond the formation of the Christchurch Fire Board in 1907.

The next significant development came in 1865, when the first steam engine was acquired. This Shand Mason machine, called “The Extinguisher,” was manhandled to fires initially, but was later horse drawn.

In 1867, the Christchurch Volunteer Fire Brigade resigned as a body, following the public’s discontent over what they regarded as the mishandling of two fires in quick succession. The responsibility was handed over to the Christchurch City Council, which struck a rate to fund the fire brigade. This new beginning closed the first chapter in the development of the serivce. Besides the acquisition of more sophisticated firefighting appliances, advances were also made in special brigade ladders. The first “fire escape,” only 12 metres long, was built by Lieutenant Edward Smith as part of an engineering competition that he won. It was presented to the brigade in 1888, and is seen at the left of the photograph on this page. On the right of the same photograph is “Vulcan,” a 20-metre, horse-drawn ladder commissioned by the bridage in 1896.

The first motorised ladder, a 28-metre Tilling-

Stephens petrol-electric device, was not acquired until 1928. The “aerial equipment” grew with the height of the buildings in the city, and the fire-fighting appliances themselves carried ladders that could be joined. They still carry either one

or two ladders — second and third-floor ladders — the shorter of which are longer than the Smith ladder. The brigade now operates three pieces of aerial equipment, all shown in the centre of the display photograph on the next page.