"fire fighters part of the army?" Topic

Hi,Guys
Iwould like to know if the fire fighters of a big towm would be part of the army garde nationale? greetings serge joe

There are several distinct traditions in organization of fire fighting services – in the UK the first formal fire fighters were either volunteers or private fire fighting groups organized by insurance companies to protect the property they insured; the first municipal fire brigade in the UK was in Edinburgh in 1824

The French militarized the Paris fire service after a fire in 1810 at the Austrian Embassy that killed a few big hats; Napoleon created the Bataillon de sapeurs-pompiers de Paris which as I recall was organizationally part of the Engineers (genie), not the National Guard. The other fire services in France again as I recall were municipal except for Marsailles where the Navy had (and has) a fire brigade

So, long story short, I think the Paris fire fighters were the only ones in the army, and they were in the Engineers

In the ACW the 11th New York Infantry, the "Fire Zouaves" were drawn from many of the fire departments in New York City.

Were and still are, it seems.

Ron

P.S. Evidently the ones in Marseilles are the "Marins-Pompiers".

On the topic of paramilitaries, at the 175th anniversary Waterloo reenactment, there were reenactors of the Saxon Postal Service. Beautiful yellow uniforms they had. Don't know what they had to do with Waterloo, but they had great uniforms!

The helmets however were adopted by any nation? with smal difference
alterations greetings serge joe

I think UK fire fighters were wearing brass helmets from the mid 19th to mid 20th centuries. US fire fighters seemed to have worn jacked leather helmets until replaced by plastic in the 1960's, 1970's?