The volunteer firefighters of Istanbul 1826-1923

Abstract

This study explains the various responses developed by the inhabitants of the Ottoman capital during the last hundred years of the empire to the frequent fires they experienced. Being a city comprised of a wooden and dense dwelling pattern and having inadequate water supply systems, İstanbul had been vulnerable to flames throughout the entire Ottoman reign. During the nineteenth century with a rapid population growth, the city witnessed an increase in both the frequency of fires and the attempts, in turn, to alleviate their destructive effects. This study focuses on these attempts displayed on one hand by the government through new administrative bodies constituted during the Tanzimat period, and on the other by the dwellers themselves through volunteer teams established in various İstanbul neighborhoods. The research follows the traces of these organizations mainly in the archival documents but also in contemporary accounts, novels, and travelers’ books. The volunteer firefighter teams of neighborhoods appeared after 1826 when the Janissaries, the main institution responsible for containing fires in İstanbul, were abolished, and existed for more than a century along with firefighter teams of official departments and later the military fire brigade. These volunteer firefighters, using a manually operated firepump carried on shoulders all through these years, not only established a profession appealing to many neighborhood young men, but also became subjects of a very different story turning into popular heroic figures, sportsmen, and improvisers of folk literature, through practices having their essence in their fights against fires, yet not only being restricted to the fire scenes.