Fires on Uman region territory in the 19th- at the beginning of the 20th century: an attempt to the systematize the causes
Keywords:
daily history, fire, arson, Uman district, Uman region, Kyiv provinceAbstract
The article deals with fires as an element of everyday life of Uman region people in 19th - early 20th century. It presents the attempt to systematize the main causes of such burnings. Among them there are such causes as follows: the lack of state support, namely for the creation of fire brigades in rural areas, and the low level of technical equipment and material provision of teams existing in cities. Another one is that flammable materials were widely used for construction, as among 406 289 buildings of the Kyiv province, 94% were covered with straw and reeds and only 0.6% were roofed with metal. The specifics of agricultural work, roofs mostly made of straw, wooden or clay chimneys, sometimes remote water supply, close distance between houses, barns, stockyards, and haycocks in rural homesteads created a threat of fire rapid spread in case of its occurrence. Such situations were most vulnerable for the rural population because of peasant life peculiarities, the structure of rural livelihood etc. Although the city started professional fire protection in the early 19th century, the village remained defenceless because of the lack of tools and skills to fight against fire.
It is noted that the mentioned factors influenced the spread of fire which resulted in losses for population of the region. It was established that the number of rural fires exceeded urban ones, but the losses in cities almost twice exceeded the losses incurred in the countryside. It was determined that the number of fires and their magnitude depended on seasons. In addition, the strength of the fire was established to be different in different seasons. It was found that the most often reason of fires in the counties was arsons, while in cities fires were usually caused by the negligence and malfunction of chimneys and stoves. Some burnings were of a domestic character and the result of aggravation of relations between the peasants themselves, and sometimes members of families. Others were a way to reveal social protest.
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