I feel like people might read this (or just the headline) and take away a message like "aha, so for-profit fire companies actually worked just fine!" As far as

I feel like people might read this (or just the headline) and take away a message like "aha, so for-profit fire companies actually worked just fine!" As far as I know, there are still plenty of examples of that model failing hideously in various ways (eg: [1][2], and many examples of unproductive competition from TFA itself). This article is specifically about firefighting in London, in a certain time period — notably starting after the Great Fire, when presumably those dangers were fresh in people's minds. And also, to its credit, I think the article leaves the question pretty muddy and un-answered. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Licinius_Crassus#Rise_to_power_and_wealth [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_M._Tweed#Early_career