Editing Philadelphia Fire Department (section)

== History ==

Benjamin Franklin organized the Union Fire Company in 1736, establishing the model for volunteer fire protection that would serve Philadelphia for over a century. Volunteer companies proliferated through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with rivalries between companies sometimes generating more conflict than cooperation. The volunteer era ended in 1871 when Philadelphia established a paid professional fire department, consolidating the volunteer companies into a unified service.<ref name="pfd"/>

The professional department grew through the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, adding motorized apparatus, modern training, and emergency medical services. Major fires throughout Philadelphia history—including the 1865 fire at 8th and Market that killed twenty-one, various industrial fires, and conflagrations in dense residential areas—shaped department development and city fire codes. The department's evolution reflected broader professionalization of firefighting while maintaining traditions dating to Franklin's era.<ref name="pfd"/>