History of Fire Brigades
Although people have fought fires since there have been valuable things to burn, the first instance of organized professionals combating structural fires occurred in Ancient Egypt. Likewise, fire fighters of the Roman Republic existed solely as privately organized and funded groups that operated more similarly to a business than a public service; however, during the Principate period Augustus revolutionized firefighting by calling for the creation of a fire guard that was trained, paid, and equipped by the state- the first truly public and professional firefighting service. Known as the Vigiles, they were organised into cohorts and also served as a night watch and city police force.
Today, fire and rescue remains a mix of paid, call, and volunteer responders, with some Fire and Rescue Services in the UK employing a combination of retained firefighters (who carry pagers to remain on-call while at home or at work) and a small number of unpaid volunteer firefighters- a practice common with other services.
Read more about this topic: Firefighter
Famous quotes containing the words history of, history and/or fire:
“The History of the world is not the theatre of happiness. Periods of happiness are blank pages in it, for they are periods of harmony—periods when the antithesis is in abeyance.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“The best history is but like the art of Rembrandt; it casts a vivid light on certain selected causes, on those which were best and greatest; it leaves all the rest in shadow and unseen.”
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