The Barcelona Fire Service was founded in 1833. One of its main tasks since then has been to apply fire prevention measures. But how have regulations and municipal by-laws influenced fire prevention? Joan Pedreny, former head of the Division for Prevention and Civil Protection, will be replying to this question in the lecture “Past, present and future of fire prevention in Barcelona: evolution of regulations”, to be given at the Espai Bombers this Thursday at 7 pm.

The founding of the Barcelona Fire Service led to ssome measures to reduce fire risks, such as the obligation to have water tanks, hosepipes, extinguishers and fire hydrants, yet the first municipal regulations and by-laws with fire prevention criteria were not approved until 1839 and 1857 respectively. Despite everything, prevention was a secondary consideration.

As the city grew, the Barcelona Fire Service turned professional. In 1926, with the approval of the new regulation for the corps, a technical office was created for inspections and fines. New regulations on the condition for protection were also dictated and general by-laws on building were revised to improve fire protection.

As from 1958, in the context of an uncontrolled acceleration and increase in fires, various steps forward were made on prevention and the evacuation of people was considered a priority. In 1964 there was a major leap forward with the approval of the first specific municipal by-law on protection against fires in special buildings and premises. From then on, owners were obliged to install fire hydrants and adopt other prevention measures inside establishments where products were used which could cause fires.

A decade later, in 1974, a turning point came when a new municipal by-law was approved relating to fire prevention in building regulations. From that point on, all permits for new buildings and activities required a preliminary report from the Fire Service. The by-law became a model for fire prevention regulations all around the Spanish state.

Barcelona has become a safer city in the last two centuries thanks to the evolution of regulations, innovation in the technology used by the fire service and dissemination about prevention, yet there’s still a lot of work to do.

If you’d like to know more we’ll see you at the Espai Bombers this Thursday! All you need to do to book your place is send an email to espaibombers@bcn.cat.

Exhibition “Protecting Barcelona. Firefighters and fire prevention 1833-2022”

This lecture forms part of the cycle “The Fire Service and its history”, an activity linked to the exhibition “Protecting Barcelona. Firefighters and fire prevention 1833-2022”, which explains how fire prevention measures have been applied in the city from when the Barcelona Fire Service was created in 1833 through to the present day.

The exhibition, which is on at the MUHBA Oliva Artés until 30 June, looks back at fire prevention measures and the most significant fires which have occurred in the city in the history of the corps. By way of illustration, it includes an important display of historical vehicles, photos, display cases with communication apparatus and notifications, audio-visuals about major fires and a scale model of the Llevant fire station.

The display highlights the key role of prevention, which is as important as extinction and rescue, within the tasks carried out every day by the Barcelona fire Service to avoid fires.