This afternoon we had a debate in Year 1. We were deciding whether or not we should have fire marks. As part of our learning about what happened after the Great Fire of London, we learned that Fire marks were introduced. This was where people paid a company to put out the fire if their house caught fire. However, you had to wait to have your house fire put out by the company you had paid. We thought about people who didn’t have money to pay for a fire mark too. The children came up with some excellent ideas such as:
“You need to pay someone to put out a fire because that is their job. They need paying to do their job.”
“It is not fair if you don’t have enough money. Rich people should not only have their fires put out.”
At the end of the discussion, the children decided that the King should pay for everyone’s fires to be put out. It was at this point we learned that this debate went on for many years and from the 1st January 1833, ten independent insurance brigades merged to form the London Fire Engine Establishment (LFEE) and others gradually joined them in the next few years. The first Superintendent of the London Fire Engine Establishment was James Braidwood.
