Seeking the early history of CTIF International Association of Fire Services

Video: (Below) Late 1800s or early 1900s footage of a horse drawn fire engine emerging from a yard and approaching the camera. Several other horse drawn fire engines follow it.

Photo (Above) French firefighters in the uniforms they would have worn around the turn of the previous century. Photo: Wikipedia

HISTORY: Although we know what we are today, the early history of our association is for most members covered in obscurity. CTIF.org now seeks to map out the activities, photographs and names of our early Founding Members.

CTIF International Association of Fire and Rescue Services was founded already in 1900 in Paris to encourage and promote cooperation between firefighters and other fire and rescue experts around the world.

CTIF stands for International Technical Committee for Fire Prevention and Suppression, today the common name is: International Association of Fire and Rescue Services.

Beyond this, we know very little about the early origins about CTIF: 

Who were the founding members? Who were the original member countries?

What were the goals and projects initially, and how did the organization develop? We know what we are today, but our origins are for most people covered in a cloudy mist of relative obscurity.

Somewhere, the names and photographs of the early "Fathers of the Association" must exist in the depths of some French museum archive. The CTIF Communication Group encourages any member or reader of this article to contact CTIF.org if you have any information, or leads to where this information can be found.  

Published by Bjorn Ulfsson / CTIF Communication & Media Group

CTIF is made up of 40 countries as ordinary members and nearly 50 associate members, including several private and public organizations such as fire equipment manufacturers, fire and rescue associations and training schools.

CTIF organizes international conferences that are well known from Boston to Lisbon and from Oslo to Sidney.

CTIF is also famous for international competitions held every two to fours years. These competitions are attended by over 3,000 firefighters and young firefighters from around the world

CTIF also contributes to the promotion of young firefighters: in Europe, more than one million young boys and girls - this figure has doubled over the last ten years - are invested in these activities which aim to train them in the techniques firefighting and rescue of people, leading many of them to eventually join the fire and rescue services.

CTIF develops comprehensive statistics for the world's firefighters by publishing annual reports that update fire data from 90 capitals and 80 different countries.

In short: CTIF is the international fire and personal fire safety and information network, representing five million firefighters who protect a population of one billion people every day.