Jardim da Praça de Guilherme Gomes Fernandes, Porto

This garden dates from the first of May, nineteen fifteen. The monument here commemorates Guilherme Gomes Fernandes, a leading figure in Porto’s volunteer firefighting. Born in eighteen fifty, he helped establish both the Humanitarian Association of Volunteer Firefighters and Portugal’s Public Salvation Corps.

He took command of the fire brigade in eighteen seventy-seven. During the Baquet Theater blaze of eighteen eighty-eight, he led Porto’s volunteer firefighters in the response. Fernandes also created and edited a newspaper devoted to volunteer firefighting, called “O Bombeiro Voluntário.”

The sculptor Bento Cândido Silva made this memorial, unveiled in nineteen fifteen. Portugal later issued a postage stamp bearing his portrait. This is a compact tribute to a man whose public work joined rescue, organization, and communication.