The first city fire brigade.History

History of the first Khabarovsk city fire brigade

July 8, 1885 with the participation of the police chief a meeting of the commission for the city, where a decision was made to allocate money in the amount of 7771 rubles for the equipment of a fire station.

On October 18, 1886, a special commission for the development of the project for the organization of a fire depot presented the project that it had finally developed. And in 1887 in the city of Khabarovsk on the basis of the "Normal report card for the composition and equipment of fire units", the first fire department appeared at the police department on Bolshaya Street ( now Muraviova Amursky St.) - a special building for the police department and a fire station.

The rank-and-file positions in the police fire brigade were staffed with the permission of the military governor by the soldiers who received the postscript in Khabarovsk. The fire department consisted of eight private non-commissioned fire fighters, there were two manual fire pumps,four barrels on wagons with a capacity of up to 500 liters of water, 50 units of scrap tools (crowbars, axes, hooks, shovels, buckets).

a training town with a model of a two-story house and gymnastic shells,1900,Khabarovsk,Protodyakonovskaya/Tikhmeneevskaya crossroad

The draft force was eight horses. The team consisted of coachmen and kalanchist- orderly.
The Kalanchist, who was on duty on a barrel, changed every two hours (and in the winter time -every hour) when he found a fire, he rang the bell. Then the signal 🎈black leather balls were hung out

• one ball meant a fire on the Artillery mountain, (now Lenin st.),
• two balls - on the Middle Mountain, (now M. Amurskiy st.),
• three balls - on the Military Hill, (now st. Serysheva).

The guard on duty rushed out of alarm, jumped on a saddled horse and rushed in the direction indicated, and at that time the firemen harnessed horses, put on copper helmets, rolled out carts and rushed to the fire. Even before the telephone communication, the police received 8 copper horns. Conditional sound signals were developed for each mountain, and these horns were handed out to police stations in different parts of the city, and accordingly, at the signal of the horn, a certain number of black balls and flags were raised on the tower, and at night -white, or red, depending on the strength of the fire.

Police station with observation tower,Khabarovsk,1899,M.Amurskiy st
As extinguish fires in Khabarovsk at this time, the newspaper "Priamurskie Vedomosti:" A fire broke out in the Plyusnin store in Alekseevskaya Street. The pyroxylin filament, which was located in the office, in the amount of 7.5 fathoms , was ignited, intended for ignition of the chandelier in the Assumption Cathedral. The day was festive, they did not trade in the store, and therefore the owners did not immediately notice the fire. But, fortunately, from the office of the neighboring store S.Ya. Bogdanov saw smoke from the windows and the neighbors arrived to help with their home fire extinguishing means (manual fire pump) that helped to extinguish the fire. In the meantime, measures of self-defense and the owners of Plyusnin's store were taken, and there were some sacrifices. One of Plyusnin's sons, with their windows knocked out, demolished the covers of the rear part of the right hand, the other one, who wanted to enter the store through the dilapidated window, the cartilaginous part of the nose fell from above on a large piece of glass, and finally under the third, who tried to penetrate the office through the attic, The ceiling collapsed, and he fell into the burning space, having escaped, however, minor burns. Thanks to timely medical assistance, the damage does not cause fear; even the bruised end of the nose is pinned back and sewn, probably without any further traces. Losses have not yet been made known, extending, according to proposals, up to 7-9 thousand rubles. The arriving city fire brigade finished the case, which was successfully started by Bogdanov's home extinguishers; burnt the walls, ceiling, etc., but the cases, documents and bills were preserved intact, without any difficulties in further calculations for the store's operations."

Over time, the police fire brigade was equipped with retired soldiers, non-commissioned officers and policemen in free hiring. Very modest at the time, the city police did not allow to expose to fires more than 4 fighters.

On November 21, 1901, the Free Fire Brigade moved to a newly constructed building on the corner of Baranovski and Korsakovskaya streets (now Lenin Street and Volochaevskaya Street), it was a stone building with a wooden tower.
With the rapid growth of the city, one fire brigade became inadequate, and at the end of 1895 a member of the city Duma commission Pavel Vasilievich Popov submitted a report on the organization of a fire brigade from local residents and collected only by alarm (free fire brigade).

November 21, 1895, thanks to the initiative of the city's police chief and the head of the Khabarovsk region Chernov Alexander Mikhailovich, with the permission of the military governor, the establishment of the Khabarovsk Free Fire Society took place.