1st Organized Fire Department

The Union Fire-Club was the first organized fire department in Halifax and in Canada. This fire company was mainly made of the Town’s merchant élite, some of which later became politicians. Among them were Benjamin Green, who came in as a clerk to Governor Cornwallis and later became the provincial treasurer; Malachi Salter, who represented Halifax in the House of Assembly for 15 years and Michael Francklin, who became Lieutenant Governor in 1766. The company most likely ceased to exist in the mid to late 1760s.