Fire Department with watchtower
Fire Department with watchtower
Kharkiv Fire Department with watchtower

Architectural monument, built in 1884–1886. For more than 130 years, the building has helped save the city and its citizens from fires.

Location:
Kharkiv
Official status:
Architecture and Urban Development Monument of local significance
Type:
Public building
Constructed:
1887
Date of destruction:
27.03.2022
Weapon:
Artillery
History

Before April 27, 2022. Photo: wikipedia.org

Fires have long been one of the greatest disasters that could befall cities. In the XIX century, urban buildings were mainly wooden on the territory of modern Ukraine. Therefore, the fire in one place could quickly spread to neighboring homes and lead to mass tragedies. Fire stations were designed with watchtowers (called ‘kalancha’ in Ukrainian) to counteract large-scale fires in all Ukrainian lands in the XIX century. The building had 3–4 floors so that the guards could detect fires and give a signal to firefighters in time. This kind of fire department was common in many cities in Europe, the United States and Russia of that time.

This is how Kharkiv fire department №4 with the watchtower worked. It was also called the fire station ‘on Zaikivka’ according to the district name it was located in. The building was constructed according to the project of the architect Hryhorii Stryzhevskyi between 1884 and 1886 in Kvitkynska Street. 

After April 27, 2022. Photo: @MNSKHARKIV

The latter got the name after the Kvitka family, an ancient Ukrainian lineage of Cossack officers, who gave money to locals to rebuild houses affected by the fire. Until recently, the building served its strategic purpose. It housed a fire department, a district branch of The State Emergency Service of Ukraine, and a research and experimental laboratory.

On March 28, 2022, the building helping save the city and its residents from fires for more than 130 years, came under fire from the Russian artillery, damaging the facades, windows, and roof of the architectural monument of Kharkiv.

The cultural monument, which preserved the history of fire and rescue city service and its life, may now become a memory.

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