A Firemans Personal Topography
These are a series of drawings done by Fireman Bill Lumm, lent to me by his son Paul. They show what every fireman of this period had to know, a bit like the London cabbies(the knowledge) . evry fireman had to know the streets of Blackburn obviously back then there were no Sat navs and the drivers relied totally on local knowledge.
Also they were expected to know local large fire risks and water supplies as is the same today, what we don’t do is to hand draw every street surrounding fire risks as these are done for us via an onboard computer in the cab of the fire engine. You can also see that they describe the number of fire engines and type that would go to these incidents to begin with and also the directions to get there from the fire station. The knowledge of streets was also helped by a series of drop down drawers kept in the office where the duty man could help in reminding the drivers where the incident was and the directions to go
These drawings are marvellous to me for their historic value describing many mills that no longer exist as with the Royal Infirmary and old markets. they give you a snapshot in time when their were large mills dotted all round Blackburn and as you can see risks just outside the boundary that Blackburns’ fire engines would be called on to go to.
I must thank Paul for letting me use these writings of his fathers , I have had some similar maps given to me before but these were put into storage when the station museum closed. Paul has given me other writings from Bill which you will be able to view later on when I publish them on the site .
I hope you enjoy these , please feel free to comment
Comments about this page
Just to add to your information I recall that topography played a major part of a firefighters knowledge. Drivers had to within seconds of turnout systems sounding sort out a route to any location within the County Boroughs Boundary.
From the early Sixties I recall their were 1,400 Streets and 2200 fire hydrants, 14 Fire Wells, and numerous Pumping Sites along the Leeds Liverpool canal. I recall that all access gates were maintained by firefighters, hydrant inspection was a year round process carried out by firefighters which was invaluable to the ongoing training of the location of water supples all Hydrants were inspected twice a year.
In my case I obtained my driver training for many months carrying out hydrant inspection, each watch had a designated hydrant inspection man and in my case I spent many months with John Brown learning to drive and gaining invaluable knowledge of the water supples within the Borough.
Bob France (Retired Firefighter)
Add a comment about this page