Magyar Posta is issuing a set of special stamps to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the Hungarian Fire Brigade and the Association of Hungarian Fire Services. Fifty thousand copies of each of the two stamps in the set designed by the graphic artist Orsolya Kara were produced by ANY Security Printing Company using source material provided by the Central Museum of Disaster Management.
Although regulations for the purpose of fire protection were made by Stephen I as early as the 11th century, the first serious measures appeared simultaneously with the emergence of the burgher class in the cities. In the 17th century student fire brigades were established as the first fire-fighting forces, which were voluntary organisations. Of these the student fire fighters of the colleges in Debrecen andSárospatak won high repute. Throughout the centuries of the Middle Ages, in spiteof prohibitions and restrictive regulations, one conflagration followed another. One of the earliest voluntary fire brigades was established in 1835 in Arad in the Kingdom of Hungary. In the wake of the 1848-49 war for independence from Austria, the Habsburg powers did not allow voluntary fire-fighting units to operate in Hungary for a long time. Thus it was only in 1866 that the Sopron Fire and Gymnastics Society was able to commence operations, while the Pest Fire Brigade and the full-time fire brigade, both under the leadership of Count Ödön Széchenyi,followed suit in 1870. Thereafter, a series of fire societies and associations as well as fire-fighting brigades were formed.
The main figure of the HUF 125 stamp is Count Ödön Széchenyi, the commander ofthe Budapest Fire Brigade and the first president of the Hungarian National Fire Fighting Association, depicted with the first book on fire fighting dating from 1864 beside him. The main figure of the HUF 135 stamp is Saint Florian, the patron saint of fire fighters, and next to him is part of an engraving showing the fire exercise held on 17 September 1871 as well as the fire fighters’ symbol. A detail of a fire-brigade flag appears on the first day cover and the main motif of the postmark is a stylised drawing of the fire fighter’s symbol.
