20 Feb 2012 - Fireman previously employed by Insurance Companies

I was reading an article on The Age website today about a 90 year old tour guide who was retiring from giving tours of the block arcade in Melbourne Central Business District. Within this article there were a number of facts, but the one that most caught my attention was the one regarding the formation of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB). It said that before the formation of the MFB, fire brigades were employed by insurance companies. This interested me, so I dug a little deeper and discovered a document on the history of the MFB. It turns out that until 1890, all fire fighters were employed privately, and buildings often had plaques donating which particular brigade defended that building. When a building caught fire, all the fire fighters would rush to the scene, then once they determined which brigade protected the building, the fire fighters in that brigade would try to put out the blaze, whilst the other fire fighters would set about trying to hinder their progress!

I found this to be incredible, fire fighters would actually try to prevent a fire from being put out quickly! I understand why insurance companies would employ men to fight fires, and even why they would encourage them to prolong fires, because it might convince people to buy protection from their insurance company, instead of the one that let their business burn down. However just imagine if other services, that would be logical for insurance companies to fund, such as police, had actually been allowed to be formed by insurance companies. We would have situations where police get called out to a home burglary, the first cop arrives at the scene and sees the burglar fleeing the scene. He notices that this isn't a house he is paid to protect, so he offers the guy a lift, to enable him to get away from the scene faster, and potentially get his bosses a new client. He might even leave his card for the burgled home, and offer the burglar a bribe not to rob houses that he protects. It is the exact same principle as the fire fighters trying to prolong the fire. I am just happy they our government wised up and decided to form the MFB, because if they hadn't and we had let our society go down the path where more services were funded by insurance companies and competed in that way, I don't think we would ever be able to safely leave our homes!

To read the original article, check out The Age, or check out the MFB History document on the MFB website.