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Invented? Ancient Rome would like a word: the Vigiles Urbani date back to 6 AD. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefighting_in_ancient_Rome https://en.wikipedia

Invented? Ancient Rome would like a word: the Vigiles Urbani date back to 6 AD. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefighting_in_ancient_Rome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefighting_in_ancient_Rome And private firefighters were active even earlier, with Crassus particularly notorious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Licinius_Crassus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Licinius_Crassus

stingraycharles 3mo ago
Yeah the title is clickbaity, a more accurate title would be that they improved and/or scaled it.
- embedding-shape 3mo ago
  From the article: > Fire fighters were not paid salaries, however. Each fire company was staffed with 36 residents of the district, serving under the command of two fire masters. Each man appointed had to serve a year or pay a fine of ten guilders. Not sure about density in urban old Rome or old Amsterdam, but sounds like their "fire brigade" ended up quite larger in Rome unless Amsterdam had a lot of "districts": > After Egnatius' death, Augustus set up his own fire brigade, which also consisted of 600 slaves, and later, in 7 or 6 BCE the fire brigade was enlarged, now consisting of 3,500 freedmen, the vigiles, who were divided into seven cohorts of 500 men each and made subordinate to a praefectus vigilum. In about 200 CE, their number was doubled to 7,000 men. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Egnatius_Rufus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Egnatius_Rufus
sph 3mo ago
Didn’t know that; in modern italian vigili urbani is the traffic police.
asmodeuslucifer 3mo ago
Seriously Crassus. I know the idea of a rich bastard who starts fires and then makes money putting them out is unbelievable in our modern age but it was a real thing.
- nidnogg 3mo ago
  Lmao I could not believe this when I read it. Had to do my due diligence in wikipedia afterwards. It's legit! [1] [1] - Fires were almost a daily occurrence in Rome, and Crassus took advantage of the fact that Rome had no fire department, by creating his own brigade—500 men strong—which rushed to burning buildings at the first cry of alarm. Upon arriving at the scene, however, the firefighters did nothing while Crassus offered to buy the burning building from the distressed property owner, at a miserable price. If the owner agreed to sell the property, his men would put out the fire; if the owner refused, then they would simply let the structure burn to the ground. After buying many properties this way, he rebuilt them, and often leased the properties to their original owners or new tenants.
  - throw310822 3mo ago
    Crass!
doginasuit 3mo ago
The article describes several actual inventions that are still the foundation of modern fire departments. It goes without saying that they didn't come up with the idea of organized firefighting.

stingraycharles 3mo ago

Yeah the title is clickbaity, a more accurate title would be that they improved and/or scaled it.

embedding-shape 3mo ago
From the article: > Fire fighters were not paid salaries, however. Each fire company was staffed with 36 residents of the district, serving under the command of two fire masters. Each man appointed had to serve a year or pay a fine of ten guilders. Not sure about density in urban old Rome or old Amsterdam, but sounds like their "fire brigade" ended up quite larger in Rome unless Amsterdam had a lot of "districts": > After Egnatius' death, Augustus set up his own fire brigade, which also consisted of 600 slaves, and later, in 7 or 6 BCE the fire brigade was enlarged, now consisting of 3,500 freedmen, the vigiles, who were divided into seven cohorts of 500 men each and made subordinate to a praefectus vigilum. In about 200 CE, their number was doubled to 7,000 men. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Egnatius_Rufus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Egnatius_Rufus

sph 3mo ago

Didn’t know that; in modern italian vigili urbani is the traffic police.

asmodeuslucifer 3mo ago

Seriously Crassus. I know the idea of a rich bastard who starts fires and then makes money putting them out is unbelievable in our modern age but it was a real thing.

nidnogg 3mo ago
Lmao I could not believe this when I read it. Had to do my due diligence in wikipedia afterwards. It's legit! [1] [1] - Fires were almost a daily occurrence in Rome, and Crassus took advantage of the fact that Rome had no fire department, by creating his own brigade—500 men strong—which rushed to burning buildings at the first cry of alarm. Upon arriving at the scene, however, the firefighters did nothing while Crassus offered to buy the burning building from the distressed property owner, at a miserable price. If the owner agreed to sell the property, his men would put out the fire; if the owner refused, then they would simply let the structure burn to the ground. After buying many properties this way, he rebuilt them, and often leased the properties to their original owners or new tenants.
- throw310822 3mo ago
  Crass!

doginasuit 3mo ago

The article describes several actual inventions that are still the foundation of modern fire departments. It goes without saying that they didn't come up with the idea of organized firefighting.