Nicola here. The firefighter is a popular hero – and increasingly heroine – in romantic fiction. It’s easy to see why the trope appeals; fire is an ever-present danger and those who fight it demonstrate courage, compassion for others and even self-sacrifice. To be a firefighter embodies many character ideals. Interestingly it isn’t a character type commonly found in historical fiction which is surprising in a way because fire-fighting has a long and noble history. I’m not going back all the way to Ancient Rome and the first fire brigades in this blog because I mentioned them in a previous blog here. I’m starting this story on 16th October 1834 when the Houses of Parliament in London burned down.
The 1834 fire was caused by accounting! The Exchequer needed to dispose of two cartloads of tally sticks which were an obsolete accounting system that hadn’t been used since 1826. They thought that burning them in the furnaces beneath the House of Lords would be a good way of getting rid of them. Unfortunately the system overheated and two chimney flues caught fire. At 6pm in the evening the cry went up that the House of Lords was on fire. Both houses of parliament and most of the other buildings on the site were burned down.
The private London Fire Establishment had recently been set up, replacing the 10 private brigades that had previously put out fires 
in the city. James Braidwood who had founded the world’s first municipal fire service in Edinburgh in 1824 was its chief officer. He brought 12 engines and 64 officers with him even though the Houses of Parliament were not covered by insurance. Braidwood was the first man to venture into the heart of the building and attack the fire at its source. In doing so he was able to save the medieval Westminster Hall. The blaze attracted a huge crowd and was recorded for posterity by artists such as Constable and Turner.
James Braidwood was the first firefighter hero, the embodiment of Victorian heroism. He was killed in 1861 during a fire at a gunpowder factory when he went inside to check all his men were safe and the building collapsed. This led to renewed calls for a public fire service and in 1866 the London Metropolitan Fire Brigade was established. It was the forerunner of the London Fire Brigade. Braidwood’s death led to a fascination with fire-fighting in print culture and a number of novels extolled the virtues of the heroic fireman. RM Ballantyne, author of Coral Island, wrote “Fighting the Flames” in 1867. It was a tale of the London Fire Brigade with Braidwood as an urban, working-class hero. The artists Millais and Vigo also based some of their work on images of fire-fighting, with Millais’ The Rescue embodying the story of a courageous fireman saving the lives of children.
The fireman was not an aristocratic hero but he embodied the Victorian ideal of masculinity; a real man and a protector. The cult of the heroic fireman grew over the period and manufacturers took advantage of the merchandising opportunities with toy fire engines and other items for children and for the home. Two World Wars in the twentieth century only served to re-inforce the idea of the fireman as an ideal. “Heroes with grimy faces” as Churchill called them. The Eagle comic for boys ran a series about firefighters and the cult of the firefighter hero grew.
Today’s contemporary romance books with heroes – and heroines – who are firefighters are descended directly 
from the Victorian tradition and from James Braidwood, the first firefighter hero. The same qualities of courage and compassion attract readers today. It’s interesting that it isn’t a trope that is generally seen in historical romance. I wonder if this is because heroes of historical romance generally are aristocratic and it was a working class profession, even before the Victorian era. Would you read a historical romance with a firefighter hero – or heroine, if historical accuracy was stretched that far?
