DEPARTMENT HISTORY

 

 

 

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1642 Montreal is founded from a land that was called Tiotiaki by the natives. The military took care of the defending the city against the risk of fire.
 
1683 The first fire station is established in Montreal. It consisted of an armory inside the first Notre-Dame Church.

The church bell was rung in the even of a fire and became the meeting point for all the volunteer firemen. The rules obliged everybody to come running with a bucket as of the first signal.
 
1734 Creation of the first fire brigade, it is formed by volunteers recruited from building workmen.
 
1786 Fire Club No.1 is formed by fifteen English businessmen. A rule by the club divides the city into four general districts.
 
1804 The first hand pump is bought from the England based Phoenix insurance company.
 
1806 The city is divided into four districts, each supplied with a hand pump and its fire equipment.
 
1824 Creation of the Fire Society, which replaced the Fire Club. It consisted of about one hundred volunteers divided among three companies each equipped with a hand pump.
 
1829 Montreal is protected by three very distinct fire societies. They included The St-Lawrence Alliance and Fire Club of Montreal, The Montreal Fire Club and lastly the Phoenix Volunteer Fire Club.
 
1833 Montreal disposed of nine volunteer companies and nine manual pumps, all divided among nine stations located at strategic points.
 
1840 The Fire Society forms another company bringing its total to ten.
 
1841 The Montreal Corporation orders that the Montreal Fire Society be composed of a Chief-engineer and Building inspector, as well as a captain and a lieutenant for each volunteer company.

The Montreal City Counsel appoints the first chief.
 
1850 The department purchases its first horse.
 
1863 City Counsel passes municipal by-law 288, which establishes the Fire Department. The personnel is in service 24 hours a day.

During the creation of the permanent fire brigade, the old volunteer teams are dissolved and three new volunteer crews are formed under the name "Fire Companies of the City".

The alarm telegraph makes its arrival. At first, there are 52 pull-boxes placed in the cities streets.
 
1868 The spraying of streets as the Fire Department's duty comes to an end. It is now the responsibility of the Roads Committee.
 
1871 The first steam engine is purchased by the Department.
 
1872 Foundation of the first protection team, whose mission was to protect the citizens against the damages caused by water, fire, heat or smoke.
 
1883 The horse harnesses are hung from the ceiling of the stations. This had an effect to relax the horses that were always wearing their harnesses.
 
1884 The telephone is installed between the Alarm Telegraph Office and the fire station by Bell Telephone Exchange.
 
1887 First practice exercises are given to the firemen during the summer.
 
1899 A recasting of the Municipal Charter institutes the Fire Department under the direction of the Fire Commission and the municipal council.
 
1904 The Fire and Lighting Commission abolishes the use of the alarm bell in the cities four churches. It should be noted that the alarm bell was connected and maintained by telegraph in order to sound the alarm throughout the city.
 
1907 The service changes its name to the "Départment des Incendies de Montréal".
 
1909 The first school to educate future firefighters is formed.
 
1912 The Fire Prevention bureau is officially established under the direction of a chief inspector, who made up its entire staff.

The first three motorized fire apparatus are purchased.
 
1914 Fire Prevention bureau is truly established with the restructuring of the inspection service in order to make it more practical. In total, thirty-three inspectors are hired by the service.

The first motorized pumper is put into service.
 
1921 The philharmonic of the Montreal Firefighters is formed, composed of a brass band and a choir.
 
1928 The service department becomes "Service des Incendies de Montréal" and the chief of the department is now called the director of the service.
 
1936 Horses are no longer used by the department.
 
1940 Official opening of a school to train firefighters.
 
1944 The hours of the fireman are reduced from 84 to 78 hours a week.
 
1951 The hours of the fireman are once again reduced from 72 to 63 hours a week.
 
1953 The hours of the fireman are once again reduced from 63 to 60 hours a week.
 
1956 The hours of the fireman are once again reduced from 60 to 56 hours a week.
 
1961 The service puts into effect a procedure in order to help the rescue of handicapped people. A sticker was placed on the window of any dwelling that housed a handicapped person.
 
1981 Deactivation of the last street pull boxes.
 
1984 Department becomes "Service de Prévention des Incendies de Montréal".

A four category, risk based, dispatch plan is put into effect. It is based essentially on the buildings calorific potential.
 
1985 Inauguration of the 9-1-1 call centre for emergencies.
 
1986 Completion of the physical installations for a studio that could produce training videos. The first visioning of a video took place during the year.
 
1989 Another name change to "Service de la Prévention des Incendies de Montréal".
 
1990 The first female firefighter officially begins her career.

A physical conditioning program is put into place for the stations.

The first High Angle rescue team is formed ("Spider").

A new data processing dispatch system is put into placed, based again on the calorific potential of a given building. This procedure was re-evaluated and updated after a study on territorial risks was executed in 1989.
 
1992
 
1993 Addition of a confined spaces team ("Moles").

Administrative reorganization of the service and principally the modification of its permanent structure to allow for borough based management. The service passed from 10 administrative districts to 9 boroughs.
 
1994 Addition of a second spider team.

Addition of the nautical rescue teams.

A computer-aided dispatch system is put into place.
 
1995 A portion of the "Systeme de Gestion des Interventions" plan is put into place. This consisted of the station receiving information about a run at the station via a computer and printer.
 
1996 The service goes from nine boroughs to seven regions.

Inauguration of the "Systeme de Gestion des Interventions" with automatic transmission of information into the vehicles via computer.
 
2001 The service changes its radio system towards the 800MHz, UHF band (Motorola Trunking). In addition to this, each firefighter is now equipped with a portable radio for reasons of security on the scene of a call.
 
2002 All fire department on the Montréal Island are merged into a single department. The new departement is now called "Service de Sécurité Incendie de Montréal". The Service passed from 36 to 65 stations and 7 regions to 15 divisions.
 
2004 The Service passed from 15 divisions to 12 divisions.
 
2005
 
2006
 
 
Department history texts
Prepared by Pierre Gascon