The Master of Fire

From the first days of the city’s foundation on the Neva-river extinction of fires has been performed by its residents. And only on the 24^th of September 1803 tsar Alexander 1 decree abolished fire duty of the inhabitants. St.-Petersburg fire protection was given to the fire-brigades.

The first head of St.-Petersburg fire–brigades was regular officer colonel Domrachev. Fire chronicle did not keep his name and biography, but kept his deeds for the benefit of the Motherland. His first task colonel Domrachev saw in forming “organized fire protection of the city”.

This strenuons work he combined with learning. He had neither experience nor instructions and looked for knowledge in books without any assistance. He was interested not only in organization of the fire work, but in theoretical problems, such as the theory of burning, the composition of air, extinguishing property, and so on. Later on his notes on the theory of fire-protection were included in the first practical directions for the chief of a fire-brigade.

Colonel Domrachev^,s creative work gave excellent results: on the 24^th of June 1803 St.-Petersburg fire-brigade started working.

The fire-brigade was headed by a chief. It included a coachman, strings of carts and horses. 528 firemen were the kernel of a new fire-brigade. The city fire-brigade consisted of 11 fire departments. Every department had 48 firemen, 10-12 coachmen in its staff and 17-20 horses. It is interesting to note that horses for departments were chosen according to their colour: in the first department – black horses, in the second department – lightbay horses, in the third department – white horses, in the fourth department – dapple-grey horses …

The equipment was more than modest in comparison with the present-day equipment: fire pipes, short fire hoses, some copper fire pumps, barrels with water and also buckets, spades, ropes, hooks and axes. But just in these very years an accurate structure of a fire-brigade was determined. Every fire-brigade had its own detachments: water-supply, pipes, guard and so on.

The firemen of all the departments lived in barracks. Their working day usually began at 5-6 o^,clock in the morning and lasted for 15-16 hours.

Two times a week the chief of a fire-brigade raised a “false” (educational) alarm.

The head of the fire brigades Colonel Domrachev struggled for discipline, accuracy and culture of the fire service. He took everything new from the fire practice of other countries and tried to raise efficiency of St.-Petersburg Fire Protection Service.

Thanks to colonel Domrachev`s strenuous work the number of the fires in the city was reduced. The fire chronicle of those years describes only four large fires. Colonel Domrachev performed great services for the city of St.-Petersburg. He became the first and real master of fire. He gave to fire protection 24 years. In 1827 colonel Domrachev retired, leaving memory of oneself, that lives in our days too.

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