Propisi o požarnoj bezbednosti u Srbiji u prvoj polovini XIX veka

Abstract

The development of fire protection and the normative shaping of firefighting and preventive fire measures in the Serbian state built during the 19th century took place in accordance with the general social circumstances and the degree of achieved state and legal development. Fire safety in renewed Serbia has progressed from experiential fire protection, throughout learning from failures and observed errors during fires, through efforts to control the use of fire in craft processes in the first half of the 19th century to erecting buildings prepared for fire scenarios and creating fire brigades in 80s of the 19th century. The paper analyzes the legal framework of fire safety in Serbia in the first half of the 19th century, which consisted of regulations on fire extinguishing, provisions on fire prevention and provisions sanctioning violations of fire safety. During the first half of the 19th century, fire safety measures in Serbia were developed within the framework of general state and legal development and were characterized by a set of features present in all segments of state organization and its legal regulation. During the first reign of Prince Miloš, the area of fire protection, as well as the entire social life, was marked by standardization in the form of bylaws. Among them, the 1834 Decree on extinguishing fires from 1834, which would remain in force and be applied long after Miloš left Serbia, stands out in importance. During the rule of the so-called constitutionalists, based on the legal regulation of numerous issues of social and state life, progress in the field of fire protection was made by prescribing preventive fire measures and sanctions for violating fire safety. Due to its importance, even before it became the capital of the young Serbian principality in 1841, Belgarde was the subject of special attention of the state authorities in every sense, even in terms of fire protection. Both Prince Miloš Obrenović, who did not like to stay in it, and Prince Aleksandar Karadjordjević, who ruled Serbia together with the constitutionalists, aware of the increased risk of fire, prescribed protective fire-fighting measures for the implementation and supervision of which the Belg r ade police was in charge. Several conclusions emerge from the performed analysis. The fire safety in Serbia in the observed period was often the subject of legal regulation. At first, the emphasis was on extinguishing fires, and later fire prevention was standardized. In accordance with such a development of fire protection standardization, sanctions for causing fires and violating preventive fire measures were also prescribed. The absence of professional firefighting is noticeable, in the sense that Serbia was behind the developed European countries by about a hundred years. However, entrusting fire safety to the competence of the police authorities was a solution characteristic of a developing country such as Serbia was in the first half of the 19th century.