PRIESTS AS FIREMEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 March 1939, Page 8

PRIESTS AS FIREMEN

EARLY DAYS OF PARIS BRIGADE.

Priests plaved an important part in the early days of The Paris fire brigade, organised by Louis XIV in 1705. The first fire the Paris brigade had to fight was the burning of the Petit Saint Antoine Church.

The fire brigade in those days was provided with 20 pumps and hoses. Fort}' was the total number of firemen. increased to sixty. In 1(22 the Due d’Orleans decided that their number should be increased to 152, that they should be drilled and wear a uniform. They were chosen among artisans used to working high above the ground, house carpenters, masons, roof tilers, etc.

Four congregations of priests were auxiliary firemen from 1722 to 1787. These were the Capucins. the Cordeliers. Cannes and Jacobins. As soon as the great boll of Notre Dame boomed out its deep notes of alarm, _ these priests came rushing out of their convents. their gowns tucked up rounc their wails, all carrying leather buckets-, ropes, axes and ladders. On one occasion when the priests in large numbers were helping save the patients of the Hotel Dieu from a fire twenty of them wore burned to deatii. Napoleon constituted the modern French fire brigade by a decree dated from the rialace of CoYnpiegne, in 1811. mi a basis so well organised that no fundamental change has smee been necessary. Paris firemen were incorporated in the army by Louis XVIII. At all fire brigade stations in Paris hot soup is served every morning in winter to the poor, a tradition dating from 1817.