Research Catalog

Crucible of fire : nineteenth-century urban fires and the making of the modern fire service / Bruce Hensler.

Title
Crucible of fire : nineteenth-century urban fires and the making of the modern fire service / Bruce Hensler.
Author
Hensler, Bruce, 1953-
Publication
Washington, D.C. : Potomac Books, c2011.

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Details

Description
xii, 231 p., [16] p. of plates : ill., maps; 24 cm.
Summary
"Urban conflagrations, such as the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and the Great Boston Fire the following year, terrorized the citizens of nineteenth-century American cities. However, urban rebirth in the aftermath of great fires offered a chance to shape the future. Ultimately residents and planners created sweeping changes in the methods of constructing buildings, planning city streets, engineering water distribution systems, underwriting fire insurance, and firefighting itself ... "
Uniform Title
Project Muse UPCC books
Subjects
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (p. 199-220) and index.
Processing Action (note)
  • committed to retain
Contents
Pt. 1. The context of the modern fire service -- Origins of organized fire service -- Firefighter culture -- Contemporary firefighting -- pt. 2. The fire problem defined -- Great fire in Pittsburgh -- Fire in the built environment -- Fire and human behavior -- Fire in rural areas and wildlands -- pt. 3. The fire service under fire -- Transformative forces to make firefighting safer -- Cultural change needed to improve firefighter safety -- Transitional forces create new fire service model -- pt. 4. Learning to fight great urban fires -- London and the development of a fire service -- Portland and the Board of Fire Underwriters -- Boston and the standardization of fire protection -- pt. 5. Learning to control building fires -- Fire protection in theory -- Deadly fire in a fireproof hotel -- Firefighting, building codes, and technology -- pt. 6. Firefighters, engineers, and underwriters -- New England mills and the factory mutual system -- Fighting fires : from art to science -- Volunteers to paid firemen -- Legacy of the combustible city.
ISBN
  • 9781597976848 (hardcover : alk. paper)
  • 1597976849 (hardcover : alk. paper)
LCCN
^^2011007448
OCLC
  • 650217409
  • SCSB-12320092
Owning Institutions
Harvard Library