The inhabitants of Tórshavn, the capital city of Faroe Islands, numbered 984 in 1880. Most of them were living in the "Reyn" quarter of the town where the houses were huddled together, prompting extreme caution when people were dealing with fire. There were no fire hydrants, water pipelines being non-existent. In case of fire a fire pump was hauled to wherever the fire had broken out. Water for the fire pump was retrieved from the sea or from rivers.
