alt Hacker NewsInvented? Ancient Rome would like a word: the Vigiles Urbani date back to 6 AD.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefighting_in_ancient_Rome
And private firefighters were active even earlier, with Crassus particularly notorious:
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asmodeuslucifer • today at 1:41 AM
Seriously Crassus. I know the idea of a rich bastard who starts fires and then makes money putting them out is unbelievable in our modern age but it was a real thing.
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stingraycharles • yesterday at 11:25 PM
Yeah the title is clickbaity, a more accurate title would be that they improved and/or scaled it.
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sph • yesterday at 11:37 PM
Didn’t know that; in modern italian vigili urbani is the traffic police.
The article describes several actual inventions that are still the foundation of modern fire departments. It goes without saying that they didn't come up with the idea of organized firefighting.