Overview of James Braidwood

Pioneering fire-fighter. Born in Edinburgh and educated at the Royal High School in the city, Braidwood joined his father's building firm as an apprentice. He learned about the construction of buildings while living with the masons and carpenters and later applied this knowledge in fire-fighting. In the early 19th C., people were leaving Edinburgh's Old Town for the more comfortable surroundings of the New Town. The old buildings became slums and fire-traps. Edinburgh had very limited fire services and, following a series of deadly fires, Braidwood persuaded the authorities and insurance company brigades to work together. He formed the world's first municipal fire brigade, organising men and machines. He was the first to promote entering burning buildings to fight the seat of a fire. He trained his men at night to get them used to dark conditions and instructed them to carry rope to escape from burning buildings, practising their climbing skills on Edinburgh's North Bridge.

Braidwood became the first Superintendent of the new London Fire Brigade (1833), with a team of 80 full-time fire-fighters at 13 stations. In this capacity, he carried out fire prevention surveys at, for example, the Royal Naval Dockyards and Buckingham Palace. Braidwood's manual on fire-fighting includes many basic principles which are still quoted during fire training today. He also invented one of the first forms of breathing apparatus to be used by firemen.

Braidwood was killed by a collapsing wall while fighting the infamous Tooley Street Warehouse fire on the south bank of the River Thames. Thousands turned out to see his funeral procession as it passed through the streets of London. A London fire-boat was named in his honour in the 1930s.