In my hometown of Sackville they had a volunteer fire department. They used to have this loud horn that would make noises you could hear all over town when someone triggered an alarm, with a certain number in a higher tone then a certain number of lower ones showing which alarm it was.
My back yard borders on a fire station. It looks like it was built a century ago or so, and has a tall tower from which I imagine you can see a large part of the city. I wish I had a reason so ask them to let me go up there and see! Oh well, what you imagine seeing is always more impressive than what you'll actually see.
Big city fires, like Chicago in 1870 or Rome in Nero's time, tend to happen in towns that have been expanding quickly with little regulation. There's a legend that Nero started the fire himself, but I read on Wikipedia that historians are pretty sure it didn't happen this way, because the fire happened during a full moon and most arsonists would wait for a darker night to strike. There's also a legend that the Chicago Fire started when Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicked over a lantern, but I've read a theory that it was caused by a meteor shower.
I've seen the documentary Sicko, in which Michael Moore took a New York fireman ill from 9/11 to Cuba for better medical treatment than he could get at home. The Havana firefighters put on a ceremony for him. (No doubt firefighters around the world feel a common bond.)
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