In what then was the Massachusetts Bay Colony of the Kingdom of England, the city banned thatched roofs and wooden chimneys.

[4] On February 1, 1711, the town appointed a group of Fire Wards, each responsible for the operation and maintenance of equipment assigned to a region of the city.

On January 31, 2007, the department, Boston Police, and the United States Department of Homeland Security removed LED advertisements resembling the mooninite characters of the Cartoon Network show Aqua Teen Hungerforce for its movie which had premiered at the time, Aqua teen hunger force colon movie film for theaters.

The advertisements, dispersed throughout the city by two individuals hired by Turner Broadcasting, Interference, Inc., and Cartoon Network, were mistaken for homemade explosives.

A civil settlement was eventually reached with Turner, Interference, and Cartoon Network for some portion of the costs incurred by Boston Police and Department of Homeland Security in responding to the events.

On June 3, 2013, Chief Steve Abraira resigned citing public criticism from his deputies over his response to the Boston Marathon bombing.

[11] The victim, Nathalie Fontanez, later said that the other men in the firehouse sided with the assailant, that she had been hazed and discriminated against because she was female and Latina, and that she had been retaliated against for reporting sexually inappropriate behavior.

[12] She cited the example of being denied a transfer to the Fire Investigation Unit on the grounds it was for more senior firefighters, only to see the job go to a white man who started in the department on the same day.

[12] Other female firefighters also reported inappropriate comments, theft of equipment, finding their beds urinated in, inappropriate use of a cell phone app to locate an off-duty female firefighter, fears of being video recorded while naked, and a sexual assault that resulted in no disciplinary action.

The Arcadia Hotel fire occurred on December 3, 1913, in a flophouse on the corner of Washington and Laconia Streets in Boston's South End.

At 10:15 pm on November 28, 1942, the fire began when a short in the electrical wiring ignited gas leaking from a faulty refrigeration unit.

On January 28, 1966, a series of explosions under the Paramount Hotel and resulting fires killed 11 people and damaged multiple buildings.

Boston Municipal Court Judge Elijah Adlow blamed the blast on a leak from a gas main.

[28] At 2:35 pm on Saturday, June 17, 1972, an alarm from Box 1571 was received for the Hotel Vendome on Commonwealth Avenue in the Back Bay.

On the afternoon of March 26, 2014, firefighters responded to a report of a fire in a Beacon Street brownstone in Boston's Back Bay.

Shortly after crews entered the building, a mayday alarm was sounded as members of Engine 33 became trapped in the basement.