{"id":1362,"date":"2014-10-22T10:48:32","date_gmt":"2014-10-22T10:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mauritiusmag.com\/?p=1362"},"modified":"2014-10-22T10:50:37","modified_gmt":"2014-10-22T10:50:37","slug":"exhibition-fire-fighters-1893","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiusmag.com\/?p=1362","title":{"rendered":"Exhibition: Fire-Fighters, 1893…"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Blue Penny Museum\u00a0at Caudan, Port Louis, will soon be hosting an exhibition on the history of fire-fighters, and the fire brigade, on the island of Mauritius. This remarkable institution, which has been of great service to the islanders and country dates from\u00a0the very end of the 19th<\/sup>\u00a0century, to a time when a great fire, in 1893, ravaged parts of the city of Port Louis. Through locally crafted tools to the latest machinery and equipment of its day imported from the UK to combat fires, the museum charts the development of the fire-fighting institution on the island. The exhibition will run from the 14 of November 2014 up to the 21st<\/sup>\u00a0of February 2015; free entry to all.<\/p>\n

Exposition<\/strong>
\nFIRE-FIGHTERS, 1893\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Fire<\/a>L\u2019Histoire de Port-Louis, notre capitale, est parsem\u00e9e d\u2019incendies ravageurs. Si le bois poss\u00e8de ind\u00e9niablement l\u2019immense avantage de pouvoir isoler de la chaleur tropicale, procurant un bien-\u00eatre imm\u00e9diat, il n\u2019en eut pas moins l\u2019inconv\u00e9nient majeur de pouvoir servir de combustible facile et propagateur, occasionnant r\u00e9guli\u00e8rement des ravages sur des \u00e9tendues touchant des quartiers entiers. De tous temps, la ville fut vuln\u00e9rable aux feux et son Histoire est pleine de r\u00e9cits terrifiants o\u00f9 des habitants perdaient tout en quelques heures tristement inoubliables.<\/p>\n

N\u00e9anmoins, les habitants ne furent pas que victimes et depuis toujours, s\u2019organis\u00e8rent solidairement afin de lutter contre ce fl\u00e9au. La lutte contre le feu devint cruciale, pour ne pas dire prioritaire. Petit \u00e0 petit, on cr\u00e9a un corps des Pompes, on se dota de mat\u00e9riels adapt\u00e9s, on cr\u00e9a des assurances, on tenta \u00e9galement de pr\u00e9venir les sinistres.<\/p>\n

L\u2019incendie de juillet 1893 fut, de sinistre m\u00e9moire, l\u2019un des plus d\u00e9vastateurs que Port-Louis ait connus. Un quartier entier, tr\u00e8s commer\u00e7ant, comprenant notamment la rue de La Chauss\u00e9e et de nombreuses autres, fut en une nuit la proie des flammes. Un an apr\u00e8s le c\u00e9l\u00e8bre cyclone de 1892, certainement le plus co\u00fbteux en vies humaines, l\u2019incendie de 1893 sembla\u00a0l\u2019estocade. Apr\u00e8s les \u00e9pid\u00e9mies de malaria, de variole, de chol\u00e9ra, la fatalit\u00e9 semblait\u00a0s\u2019acharner sur la ville.<\/p>\n

Fatalit\u00e9\u2026 ou n\u00e9gligence ? Il semble que le d\u00e9roulement de la lutte cette nuit-l\u00e0, cumula les erreurs et, au petit matin, la vision de d\u00e9solation qui se pr\u00e9senta aux citadins, ne tarda gu\u00e8re \u00e0 laisser place aux comptes\u2026<\/p>\n

Mais la le\u00e7on fut pourtant tir\u00e9e, on r\u00e9organisa de fond en comble le Service des pompes, cr\u00e9ant un corps de Sapeurs-Pompiers \"PL<\/a>structur\u00e9 et ayant d\u00e9sormais autorit\u00e9, on indemnisa les victimes assur\u00e9es rubis sur l\u2019ongle dans un d\u00e9lai record, on se solidarisa des victimes, on fit venir d\u2019Angleterre \u00e0 grands frais, des v\u00e9hicules dernier cri, adapt\u00e9s et performants.<\/p>\n

Cet \u00e9pisode, ainsi remis en m\u00e9moire, c\u2019est une bouff\u00e9e de vie de l\u2019ancien Port-Louis, un chapitre incontournable de notre m\u00e9moire qui nous revient du pass\u00e9. Une vingtaine de photos grand-format in\u00e9dites et m\u00e9connues des lendemains de l\u2019incendie, permettent de mieux r\u00e9aliser l\u2019ampleur du d\u00e9sastre. D\u2019anciens meubles du Quartier G\u00e9n\u00e9ral des Pompiers de Port-Louis, notamment le Control Panel en bois de teck, pr\u00eat\u00e9 gracieusement pour l\u2019exposition, meuble d\u2019une grande beaut\u00e9, les anciens appareils \u00e0 fabriquer manuellement la neige carbonique, ou encore les magnifiques casques d\u2019antan,\u00a0certes peu pratiques, mais \u00f4 combien magnifiques,\u2026 juste pour nous replonger au coeur d\u2019un univers et nous permettre de rendre un hommage \u00e0 tout un corps de m\u00e9tier, les sapeurs-pompiers, qui, dans l\u2019abn\u00e9gation et l\u2019anonymat, ont oeuvr\u00e9 depuis plusieurs g\u00e9n\u00e9rations et au p\u00e9ril de leurs vies, \u00e0 sauver leur prochain.<\/p>\n

Grace au sponsoring du Swan Group, le Blue Penny Museum est heureux de pouvoir vous convier \u00e0 visiter cette exposition originale et dense, Fire Fighters, 1893\u2026 du 14 novembre 2014 au 21 f\u00e9vrier 2015. Venez nombreux.\u00a0Entr\u00e9e gratuite.<\/p>\n

Contacts:<\/strong>
\nEmmanuel Richon \u2013 Conservateur<\/strong>
\nemmanuel.richon@mcb.mu – 210 9204<\/strong>
\nVirgil Guerel \u2013 Marketing Officer<\/strong>
\nvirgil.guerel@mcb.mu – 210 8176<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Blue Penny Museum\u00a0at Caudan, Port Louis, will soon be hosting an exhibition on the history of fire-fighters, and the fire brigade, on the island of Mauritius. This remarkable institution, which has been of great service to the islanders and country dates from\u00a0the very end of the 19th\u00a0century, to a time when a great fire,… Continue reading Exhibition: Fire-Fighters, 1893…<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[34],"class_list":["post-1362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history-misc","tag-mauitius-fire-brigade","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiusmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiusmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiusmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiusmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiusmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1362"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiusmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1370,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiusmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1362\/revisions\/1370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiusmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiusmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiusmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}