James Braidwood (firefighter)

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James Braidwood (1800 - 1861) was the first director of the London Fire Engine Establishment (the brigade which was eventually to become the London Fire Brigade). ^[1] and is credited with the development of the modern municipal fire service.^[2]

He was born and educated in Edinburgh where he learned about the construction of buildings, knowledge he later put to use in fire fighting. He was distinguished for his heroism on the occasion of great fires in Edinburgh (1824) and London (1830).

James Braidwood formed the world's first municipal fire brigade. Educated at the Royal High School in Edinburgh, Braidwood joined his father's building firm as an apprentice. He learned about the construction of buildings while living with the masons and carpenters and later applied this knowledge in fire-fighting. In the early 19th century, many people were leaving Edinburgh's Old Town for the more comfortable surroundings of the New Town. The old buildings became slums and fire-traps. Edinburgh had very limited fire services and, following a series of deadly fires, Braidwood persuaded the authorities and insurance company brigades to work together. He formed the world's first municipal fire brigade, organising men and machines. He was the first to promote entering burning buildings to fight the seat of a fire. He trained his men at night to get them used to dark conditions and instructed them to carry rope to escape from burning buildings, practising their climbing skills on Edinburgh's North Bridge.

Braidwood became the first Superintendent of the new London Fire Brigade (1833), with a team of 80 full-time fire-fighters at 13 stations. In this capacity, he carried out fire prevention surveys at, for example, the Royal Naval Dockyards and Buckingham Palace. Braidwood's manual on fire-fighting includes many basic principles which are still quoted during fire training today. He also invented one of the first forms of breathing apparatus to be used by firemen.

On 22 June 1861 his life was claimed in the Tooley Street fire ^[3] at Cotton's Wharf near London Bridge Station when a falling wall crushed him to death. It took two days to recover his body and his heroism led to a massive funeral on 29 June, a public spectacle equal almost to the Tooley Street fire itself ^[4], which continued to burn for a fortnight and causing ₤2,000,000 damage. A London fireboat was named in his honour in the 1930s.

James Braidwood is buried at Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington, London, within sight of the Stoke Newington Fire Station.