The Valparaíso Fire Department, the founding institution of Firefighters in Chile, will join the Heritage Day activities, occasion in which it is intended to teach the community the origin of its companies, many of them born under the influence of migrants and, therefore, from the diversity of stories, creeds and traditions that have marked the Buenos Aires firefighting history for its almost 173 years of life.
In this way, this year for the first time the CBV Heritage Department coordinated the opening of 15 of its companies and the General Directorate so that they can be visited by the entire community and thus soak up the institutional history closely linked to that of Valparaíso .
In this regard, the superintendent of the CBV, Juan Paredes Brantehighlighted the importance of recovering and preserving heritage, which today is one of the institution’s lines of work.
“We have taken responsibility as an institution, based on the support that UNESCO gave us last year when it recognized us as the only fire department in the world practically in the heritage area. The idea is to rescue part of what we have left aside and we have already assumed the great responsibility by participating today in a challenging project, taking into account that we are the only institution in Chile that is where we were founded, so Therefore, the support and patrimonial responsibility that we have is unique”emphasized the CBV superintendent.
Along these lines, one of the objectives this year is to show the richness and identity that each of the companies has, such as the night funeral of firefighters that was born in the Third Company Bomba Cousiño and A. Edwards, the particular initiatives of the Eighth Company Franco – Chilean Sappers and their Mártires del Deber museum, of the Second Germania Bomb Company and its Deutsche Feuewehr Kompagnie Historical Barracks room, and the efforts of the Sixth Cristoforo Colombo Company and its recent conservation room.
In that sense, Juan Pablo Jordán, inspector of the Heritage Department of the CBV, He detailed that “The Valparaíso Fire Department will open its company headquarters on Sunday, May 26, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., in order to be able to show the community the identity elements of each one. Firefighters is not only the service that everyone thinks, but we also have a rich history in books, textiles, traditions, paintings and other things.”
Among the panoramas that will be available in the Valparaíso Fire Department, you can see in the General Directorate the gallery of martyrs, the Hall of Honor, and a mural that tells the history of firefighting and part of the history of Buenos Aires; while the barracks will show relic cars, old uniforms, an exhibition of historical videos, funeral torches, historical assembly minutes, a mouthpiece from the First World War, among other striking artifacts of history.
