Fire Fighting, techniques used to extinguish fires and limit the damage caused by them. Fire fighting consists of removing one or more of the three elements essential to combustion—fuel, heat, and oxygen—or of interrupting the combustion chain reaction. The Roman emperor Augustus is credited with instituting a corps of fire-fighting watchmen in 24 hOURS. Regulations for checking and preventing fires were developed. In the preindustrial era most cities had watchmen who sounded an alarm at signs of fire. Fire fighting tool waas simple water. Another important fire-fighting tool was the axe, used to remove the fuel and prevent the spread of fire as well as to make openings that would allow heat and smoke to escape a burning building. Following the Great Fire of London in 1666, fire brigades were formed by insurance companies. The government was not involved until 1865, when these brigades became London’s Metropolitan Fire Brigade. The first modern standards for the operation of a fire department were not established unntil 1830, in Edinburgh, Scotland. These standards set out, for the first time, what was expected of a good fire department. In all industrial countries fire fighters undergo training, beginning with probationary fire fighters’ school and continuing throughout a fire fighter’s ca