Sometimes the most unassuming people can turn out to be heroes when they’re called upon.

 John Hayes was one of those people.

The London Metropolitan Fire Brigade received 2,905 calls for chimney fires in London in 1876. One of those fires killed John Hayes.

John was born in London about 1847, the child of Irish immigrants. He and Alice Keefe were married in 1866 in St George’s Catholic Church in Southwark, the same church his great-granddaughter Stephanie Williamson would attend in the 1930s. John and Alice had three daughters: Mary (b 1868), Elizabeth (b 1871) and our ancestor Alice, born 25 October 1873, just two and a half years before her father’s death. John worked as a labourer and roofer’s helper and Alice worked as a charwoman, or cleaner. The family lived at 19 Frances Street, Westminster Bridge Road from the time of their marriage until Alice’s death in 1884.

John worked as a roofer’s helper, which likely gave him some confidence to attempt to put out the chimney fire that led to his death. He would also have been thinking of the danger to the lives and property of his family and others living in the building. So he and a friend bravely climbed onto the roof to attempt to put out the blaze, but sadly, John fell and was critically injured.

The London Metropolitan Fire Brigade was established in 1866, only 10 years before John’s death. In those early years, fire engines were towed by horses, and water pumped by steam engines. In general, though, engines were not deployed to chimney fires. Instead, firefighters with handpumps would respond to the calls.

John was only 30 years old when he died - he left behind 3 young daughters and his wife Alice would survive him by only 8 years.

South London Chronicle, Saturday, June 24 1876

Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper 16 July 1876

References

The Fires of London During the Year 1876, and the Metropolitan Fire Brigade. Journal of the Statistical Society of London, Vol. 40, No. 1 (Mar., 1877), pp. 136-140

London Fire Brigade website, accessed 2022.11.29 https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/