Reply #39: They would extinguish the blaze in your neighbor's house

[jmowreader]

Before Benjamin Franklin established the Philadelphia Fire Department, fire protection was the responsibility of fire societies. You paid into the society and fought fires of its members.

I think you can understand the problem here. If your house was in the First Street Fire Society, you had to go out and help your Society fight fires in its members' homes. Your neighbor is in the Green Street Fire Society, and he goes out with them. Tonight you responded to a fire in one of your members' homes. While you're gone, your wife got cold so she went downstairs, shoveled some cinders into a bucket and carried it to the bedroom. In the process she got some cinders on the rug and set the house afire. The Green Street Fire Society would go to your neighbor's house to make sure it didn't burn down, but they wouldn't do anything to help you. Why should they? You're not in their fire society!

I expected something like this to happen...fire protection is expensive and I figured that's one of the things that would be sacrificed in this modern era.