Rising from the Ashes: Fire Prevention as Social Transformation

Abstract

This article explores the visual intersections between images of fire and firefighting in Jan Van der Heyden’s 1690 Slang-brand-spuiten or ‘Fire Hose Book’ and Dutch images of war and disaster from the preceding decades. The book opens with a discussion of the 1652 burning of Amsterdam’s Old Town Hall. In the accompanying image, Van der Heyden depicts his own yet-to-be invented firefighting equipment in use, inviting readers to imagine an alternative urban history. The text and images together take the reader through an imaginative exercise in which collective memories of war, disaster, and economic and social upheaval are activated. Visual references to depictions of atrocities committed during the Rampjaar, as well as disasters such as the explosion of the Delft gunpowder store, unsettled Van der Heyden’s readers. Memories of the rioting and social unrest attending these events motivated their engaged participation in urban fire response. Presentations of fires fought under Van der Heyden’s leadership offered readers a promise of social order and economic stability. Those committed to Van der Heyden’s solution could imagine an Amsterdam that passed over the chaos of recent violent and destructive events and could reclaim a new Golden Age from the ashes of the past.