How Did Firefighting Develop

Firefighting began to be a focus only with the rise of very large cities such as Rome. Earlier cities, such as those in Mesopotamia or the Indus, likely developed ad hoc firefighting departments and respondent to events. As with other institutions, however, the history of firefighting is complicated and influenced by major technical and social change that occurred in different centuries.

Early History

Early fighting developed in the early urban societies of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Indus. Very likely, however, these were not dedicated fire departments but rather as volunteer or paid individuals who would be responsible in assembling a crew and extinguishing a fire in the city. Few archaeological remains have attested to such firefighters, but laws, such as those from Hammurabi's law code, indicate they existed. There is a law that discussed a firefighter who stole from a house he was putting out a fire from would be punished by death by being thrown into the fire. The law makes it clear though that it is a volunteer. This does not mean there were no paid firefighters but it could mean volunteers may have volunteered because fires gave opportunity for theft.

We don't know the equipment used by the earliest firefighters, but likely it consisted of buckets, wells to extract water, and perhaps carts to move water to where the fire was located. The first documented fire pump dates to the 2nd century BCE, where a pump invented by Ctesibius of Alexandria may have been used in putting out fires in the city of Alexandria.