Reflections | Emperor Renzong’s bright idea: China’s first fire brigade
The first professional fire brigade was set up 1,000 years ago during the Northern Song dynasty.
Hong Kong mourned firemen Thomas Cheung and Samuel Hui Chi-kit last month, after the two died fighting a fire in a Ngau Tau Kok industrial building.
The conflagration took four-and-a-half days to extinguish and investigations are under way to determine what sparked the blaze in the subdivided warehouse, and whether there had been breaches in fire-safety rules.
Mini-storage facilities have mushroomed in the past decade but, as is often the case, it took a disaster and the loss of lives to shock authorities into examining regulatory measures.
Fire always poses a challenge in built-up areas. Early Chinese cities had volunteer and conscripted firefighters, and China’s first professional fire brigade was set up during the Northern Song dynasty by Emperor Renzong, who reigned from 1022 to 1063.