On 16 July 2024, an exhibition begins its run in the Public Forum of the State Hermitage’s General Staff building that is devoted to the 95th anniversary of the museum’s fire-fighting service – the 62nd Fire-and-Rescue Unit.
“Fire-fighting is a hereditary matter. Boris Borisovich Piotrovsky was an honorary fireman. During the Siege of Leningrad he helped to protect the museum from fires in the post of deputy head of the local air-raid defence,” Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky, General Director of the State Hermitage, commented.
The unit can trace its history back to 15 July 1929, when the position of head of fire prevention was officially established. Since that time, the number of the fire service’s personnel has increased from four to 71, while methods of extinguishing and preventing blazes have changed considerably. The exhibition will present the history of the unit’s evolution in detail on special information stands. This display is supplemented by sets of the work clothing of firefighter-rescuers and means employed in extinguishing fires down through the years. In addition, a film has been made specially for the exhibition casting light on the specifics of the work performed by the unit’s personnel.
The display tells visitors about the people who initiated fire-prevention in the Hermitage, informs them about the actions of firefighters during the Siege of Leningrad, and shows the decorations and honorary titles awarded to the unit over the years.
The long-standing collaboration between the State Hermitage and the 62nd Fire-and-Rescue Unit makes it possible to resolve important issues relating to providing and maintaining fire safety in the museum. Those include fitting locations with fire-protection systems, training staff in fire safety, conducting exercises for the evacuation of people and museum objects, and – most importantly – fire prevention.
The exhibition’s curator is Olga Vladimirovna Sushkova, head of the State Hermitage’s Fire Safety Sector.
The exhibition is being held with the support of the Avtomaticheskie sistemy spaseniia [Automatic Rescue Systems] company in conjunction with the Konchaev Fire-Technical Exhibition of the Main Administration of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations for the city of Saint Petersburg.
