50 Fun Facts About First Responders

Which dog breed became a firehouse mascot after running ahead of horse-drawn fire carriages to clear a path?

The Dalmatian gets along so well with horses that crews trained it to run in front and guide the team to a fire. It was originally bred as a hunting dog.

Which Founding Father helped form Philadelphia's Union Fire Company, whose members each supplied six leather buckets?

Benjamin Franklin campaigned for it in the Pennsylvania Gazette, and the brigade formed in December 1736. Unlike the Boston clubs it copied, it protected the whole community, not only its members.

Which farm animal was blamed in legend for kicking over a lantern and starting the Great Chicago Fire of 1871?

A cow owned by Catherine O'Leary took the blame, but the reporter behind the story admitted in 1893 that he had invented it. Chicago's city council formally cleared O'Leary in 1997.

Which Forest Service mascot fronts the longest-running public service campaign in US history, on wildfire prevention?

Smokey Bear gained a living counterpart in 1950, when a three-month-old black bear cub was found after a wildfire in New Mexico's Capitan Mountains.

Which three-digit number became the world's first emergency phone line when it launched in London in 1937?

999 was introduced after a house fire on Wimpole Street killed five women in 1935. It takes longer to dial on a rotary phone, one reason AT&T later chose 911 for America.

Which crime was the US Secret Service created to fight in 1865, decades before it began guarding presidents?

Counterfeiting was rampant after the Civil War, so the agency began inside the Treasury Department. Congress turned to it for presidential protection only after President McKinley was assassinated in 1901.

Which giant dog breed was originally bred for rescue work by a hospice high on the Italian-Swiss border?

The St. Bernard is named for the Great St Bernard Pass, where its most famous rescuer, Barry, reportedly saved between 40 and 100 lives.

Which broadcast warning system for abducted children is named after a nine-year-old girl taken in Arlington, Texas?

Amber Alert honours Amber Hagerman, who was abducted while riding her bike. Officially the name is also an acronym: America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response.

Which firehouse fixture did Chicago captain David Kenyon install in 1878 after a fireman's shortcut from the hayloft?

The sliding pole began as a wooden pole for binding hay, which fireman George Reid used to reach the ground floor well ahead of his company. Kenyon offered to pay for upkeep to get a permanent one.

Which rescue tool did George Hurst invent after watching a stock car driver stay trapped for over an hour?

Jaws of Life earned the name because crews said the device snatched people from the jaws of death. It was first used in 1963 to free race car drivers after crashes.

Which future prime minister founded London's Metropolitan Police in 1829, earning officers the nickname bobbies?

Robert Peel was Home Secretary when the first constables walked London's streets that September. The 1,000 officers were also called peelers, a less affectionate tribute.

Whose 1966 Supreme Court case against Arizona led American police to warn suspects of their right to stay silent?

Ernesto Miranda had been arrested by Phoenix police in 1963. The court ruled that statements from suspects who are not warned of their rights in custody cannot be used at trial.

Which fictional young inventor inspired the Taser's name, a loose acronym taken from the title of a 1911 novel?

Tom Swift was the childhood hero of NASA researcher Jack Cover, who finished the stun device in 1974. The book was called Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle.

Which French city has housed Interpol's headquarters since 1989, after earlier homes in Vienna and wartime Berlin?

Lyon took over from Saint-Cloud, a suburb of the French capital. The agency was founded in Vienna in 1923 and fell under Nazi control after the Anschluss in 1938.

Which dog breed is most associated with police work, though many forces favour the smaller Belgian Malinois?

The German Shepherd remains the breed most linked to law enforcement. Organized police dog work began in Ghent, Belgium, which set up the first service program in 1899.

Which nickname for London's police headquarters comes from a Westminster street beside the force's original offices?

Scotland Yard stuck even after the force left Great Scotland Yard in 1890. The replacement building, and each one since, has been called New Scotland Yard.

Which federal law enforcement agency, created by the Judiciary Act of 1789, runs America's Witness Protection Program?

U.S. Marshals were the original federal law officers, created during George Washington's presidency. They also track down fugitives and protect federal courthouses.

Which country's police staff the koban, small neighbourhood stations that also give directions and handle lost property?

Japan's koban began in 1874 as simple boxes for standing watch. Singapore later built its own neighbourhood police posts on the same system.

Which police radio ten-code, popularised by the 1950s TV series Highway Patrol, means a message has been understood?

10-4 belongs to a set of codes credited to Charles Hopper of the Illinois State Police. Work on them began in 1937, when police radio channels were scarce and every word counted.

Which law enforcement title comes from the Old English for a royal official who ran a county for the king?

Sheriff began as scirgerefa, the reeve who managed a shire on behalf of the king. The two words wore down into one over the centuries.

Which emergency does the Heimlich maneuver treat, with a rescuer pressing up beneath the victim's diaphragm from behind?

Choking on a lodged object is what the abdominal thrusts are meant to clear. The American physician it is named after is often credited with developing the technique.

Which medication, sold as the nasal spray Narcan, do first responders carry to reverse an opioid overdose?

Naloxone is an opioid antagonist, commonly used to restore breathing after an overdose. The nasal spray version was approved in the United States in 2015.

Which emblem on American ambulances replaced an orange cross after the Red Cross complained about it in 1973?

The Star of Life has six points, one for each main task of emergency medical care. At its centre is the Rod of Asclepius, an ancient symbol of medicine.

Which French leader made Dominique Jean Larrey, inventor of the flying ambulance, surgeon-in-chief of his Guard?

Napoleon first met Larrey at Toulon and later asked for him by name. Larrey copied the fast carriages of the horse artillery to rush wounded soldiers off the battlefield.

Which emergency practice of ranking patients by urgency takes its name from an Old French verb meaning to sort?

Triage comes from trier, to separate or select, though the word was only applied to the medical practice in the 1800s. The idea itself is far older.

Which Bee Gees disco hit has a beat that matches the rhythm recommended for hands-only CPR chest compressions?

Stayin' Alive runs at about 104 beats per minute, inside the 100 to 120 compressions a minute that resuscitation guidelines call for.

Which river is linked to the unidentified woman whose death mask became the face of the CPR manikin Resusci Anne?

The Seine is where the young woman reputedly drowned around the late 1880s. Norwegian toy maker Asmund Laerdal helped develop the manikin that wears her face.

Which city had America's first ambulance service staffed by paramedics, Freedom House, founded in the Hill District?

Pittsburgh police had been carrying patients to hospital in paddy wagons. Freedom House, founded in 1967, drew its first 25 recruits from a low-income, predominantly Black neighbourhood.

Which term, promoted by trauma surgeon R Adams Cowley, describes the critical period right after a severe injury?

Golden hour sums up the belief that prompt treatment gives the best chance of preventing death. Cowley promoted it as a military surgeon, then as head of Maryland's Shock Trauma Center.

Which Civil War nurse, nicknamed the Angel of the Battlefield, went on to found the American Red Cross?

Clara Barton won approval for the organisation by arguing that it could respond to natural disasters as well as war. She first encountered the Red Cross on a trip to Geneva in 1869.

Which wealthy Roman ran a private fire brigade of 500 men that stood by until owners sold their burning buildings?

Crassus drew much of his fortune from fire and war, Plutarch wrote. His men did nothing at the scene while he offered the distressed owner a miserable price.

Which Roman soldier-saint, often shown holding a pitcher of water, is the patron saint of firefighters?

Florian led firefighting brigades alongside his army duties, and legend says he stopped a blaze with a single pitcher of water. His feast day, 4 May, is International Firefighters' Day.

Which wildland firefighters reach remote blazes by parachute, a method first used on a real fire in 1940?

Smokejumpers are followed down by parachuted food, water and tools, enough to keep them working on their own for 48 hours.

Which gas completes the fire triangle alongside heat and fuel, the three things a fire needs to ignite?

Oxygen is the usual oxidizing agent, which is why smothering flames with a fire blanket works. A newer model, the fire tetrahedron, adds the chemical chain reaction as a fourth element.

Which firefighting equipment is Philadelphia Water Works engineer Frederick Graff credited with inventing around 1801?

Fire hydrant paperwork from that era no longer exists. The Patent Office burned to the ground in 1836, taking every earlier hydrant patent with it.

Which Midwestern city set up America's first fully paid fire department in 1853, with Miles Greenwood as chief?

Cincinnati made the change after an 1852 fire destroyed much of Greenwood's Eagle Ironworks. He also helped build the first practical steam fire engine, which his ironworks went on to manufacture.

Which Roman emperor founded the Vigiles, a public firefighting force paid for by a tax on the sale of slaves?

Augustus modelled the force on the fire brigade of Alexandria in Egypt. Its men were nicknamed the little bucket fellows, after the pitch-sealed rope buckets they carried.

Which firefighting hazard, an explosive burst when fresh air reaches a starved fire, shares its name with a 1991 film?

Backdraft can follow the opening of a door or window, when air rushes into a hot room full of superheated gases. Ron Howard's film follows Chicago firefighters hunting an arsonist.

Which nickname belongs to New York City's firefighters, North America's largest municipal fire department?

The Bravest comes from the department's motto, New York's Bravest. Its ambulance crews have a motto of their own: New York's Best.

Which Wisconsin town gave its name to America's deadliest wildfire, on the same day as the Great Chicago Fire?

Peshtigo's fire killed at least five times as many people as the one in Chicago, with deaths estimated between 1,500 and 2,500, yet it has been largely forgotten.

Which 1984 comedy used a real New York firehouse, Hook & Ladder Company 8 in Tribeca, as its heroes' headquarters?

Ghostbusters were first imagined as a public service much like the fire department, hence the base. Only the exterior is real: the interiors were shot in Los Angeles.

Which Dutch townscape painter also improved the fire hose in 1672 and wrote the first firefighting manual?

Jan van der Heyden worked on the hose with his brother Nicolaes, a hydraulic engineer. He also modified the manual fire engine and reorganised the volunteer fire brigade in 1685.

Which British city formed the world's first municipal fire service in 1824, with James Braidwood as Master of Engines?

Edinburgh lost its fire chief to London in 1833. He died on duty in 1861, crushed by a falling wall at the Tooley Street fire.

Which US state hosted America's first 911 call in 1968, placed in the town of Haleyville by its House speaker?

Alabama got there first because a local phone company chose to move ahead of AT&T. Congressman Tom Bevill answered the call from Speaker Rankin Fite.

Which novelist, also a London magistrate, founded the Bow Street Runners in 1749 with just six men?

Henry Fielding wanted to regularise the work of thief-takers, who were prone to corruption and mistaken arrests. His Runners have been called the city's first professional police force.

Which country is home to Pontypandy, the fictional village protected by the children's TV hero Fireman Sam?

Wales first saw the show in Welsh, as Sam Tân, on the channel S4C in 1987. The village name blends two real towns, Pontypridd and Tonypandy.

Which Star Trek actor hosted Rescue 911, the CBS series that re-enacted real emergency calls from 1989 to 1996?

William Shatner got the job partly because he had played a police officer in T. J. Hooker. Viewers credited what they learned from the show with saving at least 350 lives.

Which hazard does the red top quarter of the NFPA 704 fire diamond rate on chemical containers?

Flammability sits at the top, with blue for health hazards and yellow for chemical reactivity. The system is credited to Charlotte's fire department, after a 1959 chemical fire injured thirteen firefighters.

Which device did Indiana State Police captain Robert Borkenstein invent in 1954, after the balloon-based Drunkometer?

Breathalyzer began as his brand name and became the everyday word for breath-testing instruments. The earlier Drunkometer collected a motorist's breath in a balloon inside the machine.

Which country's emergency number is Triple Zero, introduced in its major population centres from 1961?

Australia's 000 calls are answered first by the phone company Telstra, then transferred to a state or territory emergency service.