Where does the Maltese Cross – a symbol associated with the fire service, originate?
The center focus on most Firefighter’s badges is the Maltese Cross. This symbol of protection, honor, and its history is several centuries old. When a courageous band of crusaders, known as the Knights of St. John, fought the Saracens (members of pre-Islamic people of the Syrian-Arabian desert) for possession of the Holy Land, they encountered a new weapon unknown to European fighters. It was a simple, yet horrible, device of war that wrought excruciating pain and agonizing death. As the crusaders advanced on the walls of the city, they were bombarded with glass bombs containing naptha (a colorless flammable liquid obtained from crude petroleum and used as a solvent, cleaning fluid and as a raw material for gasoline). Once saturated with the liquid, the Saracens threw flaming torches into the crusaders. Hundreds of knights were burned alive while others risked their lives in an effort to save their kinsmen from painful fiery deaths. Thus these men became the first in a long line of Fir
