Glasgow suffered at least three major fires in the 17th century which convinced the Council and the city’s inhabitants of the need to have the means to extinguish fires within the city.

Until the early 19th century firefighting in Glasgow was a public duty, but with some involvement by the town council and latterly by insurance societies.

We know that Glasgow experienced a serious fire in 1601 which destroyed much of the city. There is no detail about the measures taken to extinguish it. We know much more about a fire 50 years later, which are recorded in detail in the Council minutes.

On June 17, 1652, Glasgow was partially destroyed in a great fire which raged throughout the Saltmarket, Briggait. Gallowgate and Trongate. Houses, shops, and warehouses were burnt to the ground and almost a thousand families were left homeless.

(Image: Glasgow City Archives) The fire began in the house of James Hamilton in the High Street, caused by an English soldier cleaning his firearm. Unseasonal north-west winds fanned the flames, which soon took hold of neighbouring properties.

The town’s minutes (headed Suddent Fyre) record the appointment of quartermasters for every street in the town. The officials had the authority to inventory the houses and goods of those unaffected by the fire and use them for the benefit of those who needed help.

The minutes also record how crucial outside help was to the town: “Unless speedy remedy be used and help sought out from such as have power and whose hearts God shall move, it is likely the town shall come to utter ruin.

Glasgow got financial assistance with £1000 English pounds sterling from the English parliament and donations from churches in London, from the other cities in Scotland and major landowners.

(Image: Glasgow City Archives) Houses at this time were usually covered with thatch and had wooden fronts. This great fire led builders to adopt stone and slate more often than previously.

The means of extinguishing fires in mid-17th century were primitive. Water had to be carried from the wells and burns by the citizens using the town’s leather buckets. These were acquired at the time of the 1652 fire at a cost of £4.7s.8d  but had all been all stolen and broken.

In preparation for any future fire the Council ordered that new buckets be made bought and to pay for these each new burgess on admission to pay to certain dues (8s.4d sterling) called ‘bucket money.”

Ladders were also procured as part of the extinguishing equipment. In 1656 the Council was persuaded that the bucket system was inadequate for the suppression of fires and a sum of £25 was agreed for the purchase of an engine “for the casting of water on land that is on fire, as they have in Edinburgh.”

There was another great fire in 1677, and the town council ordered that they were to use stonework from head to foot, back to front in any rebuilding or repair work,  Wood was only to be used in partitions, doors, windows, or presses. This was the forerunner to the development of strict building regulations of today.

In 1725 the Council invested in a fire engine from London at £50 to provide for a more effective means to extinguish fires.

In 1747 the Fire Insurance Society made representations to the Council that unless measures were taken to keep the fire machines in proper order, and to have able persons always ready to manage them, this might lead to fatal consequences.

Town minutes from 1652Town minutes from 1652 (Image: Glasgow City Archives)

To prevent this, the Council took a further step, appointing a superintendent, at a salary of five pounds yearly, and twenty-four men to work the fire machines for five shillings a year each.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Glasgow had no fire brigade; the department was under the charge of the magistrates.

The superintendent of the fire engines was a master slater carrying on his business in town and country as a slater, and residing within the city wherever he might please to change a dwelling house.

In 1807 all public fire extinguishing appliances were transferred to the Police Board, who were to be responsible for firefighting thereafter and charged the whole cost of fire extinction upon the police rates.

That is a story for another day!