Tenements Gave New Meaning to the Phrase “Spread like wildfire”
Fire posed a special danger in the tenements due to poor construction, lack of fire safety measures, and far too many people living in one building. The threat ended up far worse, however, by the other density problem – how many unsafe, overcrowded buildings squeezed onto a city block. The blocks were packed with these tenement structures.
If a fire broke out in one building, it easily spread to the other. Fire easily and rapidly spread, thanks not only to these fire-prone buildings, but to the garbage packed between them and boarded-up fire escapes. Before the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) organized in 1865, firefighting services were made up of volunteers. Colonial-era bucket brigades gave way to more organized firefighting equipment and an organized volunteer firefighting force, but even the volunteer force couldn’t stop a multi-tenement fire once it started raging.
