CTIF turns 126 years today, August 16! Hip Hip Hooray!
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The CTIF was since the beginning a technical body of expertise, and was created largely to spread knowledge amidst striding technological advances, creating both new challenges, and new tools.
The first 13 founding countries of The CTIF International Association Fire Services ("Comité Technique International de prevention et d'extinction de Feu”) were:
France, Germany, USA, England, Spain, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Romania, Russia and Switzerland, as can be seen in the photo of the first Charter of Incorporation dated August 16, 1900 in Paris, France.
That’s the date when representatives from these 13 founding nations first met at the salons of the Café Maxeville on Boulevard Montmarte 12 in Paris, with the idea to create the world’s first international fire service association.
The turn of the last century was the dawn of a new technological age, and the enthusiasm for peace and cooperation across borders was strong. The term “The New Age” had just been coined at the World Exhibit, with the belief that humankind could live side by side without war or conflict.
That dream was shared by the fire authorities of these founding countries; perhaps the world would not always be at peace, but perhaps firefighters, joined by a common purpose to save lives, should be able to rise above their differences?
Of course, only 13 years later, the hope of world peace was temporarily shattered in 1913, and again in 1939, with the onslaught of WW1 and WW2.
However, the dream of uniting firefighters worldwide - regardless of rank, nationality, political association or religion - survived through two world wars, as well as through the Cold War that followed.
1961 a big turning point for CTIF
The International Firefighting Competitions of CTIF is a spectacular event gathering 3500 contestants from over 30countries, with over 10 000 fans in the audience! Here are some highlights from our history which spans over the better part of six decades.
It began in 1961 with the Traditional Fire Fighting Competitions. On the basis of decisions of the Plenary Assembly of the CTIF on 22 September 1960, the 1st International Fire Brigade competitions were held from 21 to 25 June 1961 in Bad Godesberg on the Rhine in the Federal Republic of Germany. 51 groups from 11 nations participated in this event. Since Austria and Germany had been applying the competition rules in their countries for several years, the scores of the German-speaking countries were separated from those of the non-German-speaking countries.
Read the entire historical article on CTIF.org
Photo Credit: From the Forest Fire Commission meeting in Slovenia, May 2024.
