Why Boston has a professional fire department

The origins of today's Boston Fire Department date to 1837. Alas, the reason had relatively little to do with improving fire protection in the city - and a lot to do with a riot that began 175 years ago today as some smack talking between some drunken Boston firefighters and participants in an Irish funeral procession.

The City of Boston Archives has posted some original documents related to the riot and the reorganization of the Boston Fire Department, including a report by a committee chaired by Mayor Samuel Eliot on the riots.

Eliot's committee was unable to discover exactly what words were passed between some Engine 20 firefighters, many of whom had "repaired to a neighboring store for refreshments" after returning from a Roxbury fire, and a group of mourners awaiting a procession on Broad Street - now Atlantic Avenue near South Station, around 4 p.m.

But whatever inflamed passions, things ignited when a firefighter was either pushed off the sidewalk or fell - again nobody could say for sure. Enraged mourners headed to the fire station, a commander there ordered the fire engine out and the bell rung, which brought other companies racing to the scene - in great enough numbers to make the mourners pull back, even though many were now armed with clubs from a nearby yard.

As the bells rang, still more fire companies came - and so did many average Bostonians, eager to see what all the fuss was about and not above getting into some fisticuffs - or store windows - themselves. At its height, more than 1,000 men brawled and looted, Eliot's report concluded, adding that, fortunately, the hearse and the body it carried was withdrawn early to a place of safekeeping. Some of the Protestant onlookers decided to smash up nearby Irish homes - and to beat any Irish men they found (they magnanimously allowed women and children to flee).

Eliot called out the city militia to quell the riots, although it took awhile for militia members to assemble at Faneuil Hall - and to stand guard at the city's churches, to keep anybody from raising false alarms. He called the militia out again the following Sunday to patrol Faneuil Hall and other gathering spots just in case.

A month later, the city board of aldermen approved a formal, professional fire department.

A Complete History of the Boston Fire Department, through 1888.
Boston Fire History before 1859
Riot on Broad Street by the Mighty, Mighty Bosstones.