Abstract
Introduction: Colonel Zbigniew Jacorzyński rendered great service to firefighting in Poland. He was born on 8 August 1921 in Cieszyn to an officer of the Polish Army. When he was young, he joined the Polish scouts. In 1937, he conscripted into the army and was assigned to an armoured fighting vehicles unit, mainly due to his passion for motor vehicles. In 1939 he graduated from high school with extended curriculum in Mathematics and Physics. Then, he completed compulsory six-week service in the Labour Corps in Równe, a city tucked between Polesia and Volyn. On 17 September 1939, when the Soviets invaded Poland, the Labour Corps were mobilised and sent to the relief of the German-occupied Brest-on-the-Bug. On their way, they were surrounded, disarmed and deported by Russians to Siberian labour camps. Zbigniew, working in the camp as a tree cutter, fell ill and went to hospital. Later, he started working as a stretcher-bearer in the labour camp, and thanks to this profession he managed to save his life. He escaped from the camp, hiding beneath logs of wood on a railway wagon. After the escape, he set out to find his family and eventually found it in Cracow. The war was still in progress when he made his first encounter with the fire service in Pińczów. He joined the Volunteer Fire Department, which, apart from fire drills, engaged in underground resistance operations. It was a unit of Grey Ranks. After the war, he found a job in the Provincial Fire Inspectorate in Szczecin. In addition to working, he got himself educated to become a fire-service officer. In the years 1951–1952, he headed the Firefighting School in Mielenko, Koszalin Province, and then served as a training officer at the Firefighting School in Poznan. Then, he was reassigned to Wałbrzych, where in 1967 he was appointed Chief of the Firefighting School for Non-Commissioned Officers No. 5 in Wałbrzych in the rank of a Fire-Service Captain. Between 1967 and 1976, he supervised the Firefighting Academy for Non-Commissioned Officers in Cracow, Nowa Huta, which in 1973 changed its status to become the Officer`s Training School for Fire Fighters. He educated several hundred young firefighters. In 1976, he became a senior provincial inspector for training and in-service training in the Provincial Fire Brigade Headquarters in Bielsko-Biała. He retired on 31 August 1981 in the rank of a Fire-Service Colonel. He was a natural-born teacher and a superb educator for students and young firefighters, with whom he had a unique rapport. He died on 24 August 1996 at the age of 75. He was decorated with many medals for his life professional achievements.
Keywords: Zbigniew Jacorzyński, a formative figure in the post-war history of Polish firefighting, firefighting schools, underground resistance – Grey Ranks, exile to Siberia, patriot