Fire services did used to work like that in England and elsewhere - you would subscribe to a fire service and put a plaque on the outside of your house to indicate which one and that you were paid up.
Sun Insurance (now, a few centuries on, part of Royal Sun Alliance) started out that way. It was not ideal, particularly as it didn’t take into account if the building next door (which may not have been insured, or insured with the same company) also caught fire.
Even worse - back in ancient Rome Marcus Licinius Crassus, friend to Caesar and Pompey, had his own private 500-strong fire brigade. Fires were a daily occurrence in Rome, and when a house caught fire the brigade would rush to the scene…and offer to buy the property for a pittance. If the owner agreed, they put the fire out (often then renting it back to the original owner). If not, they let the building burn down and bought the land for even less. Crassus was the richest man in Rome.
The film Gangs of New York has a scene showing the then-private fire departments in NYC. Whoever put out the fire could charge for their services, so multiple gangs (and I use that term deliberately) would arrive with equipment, and get into a full-on brawl to determine who was able to put out the fire, meanwhile buildings are burning down.
While a fictional movie, that is how things worked back then. After all, that’s good old capitalist competition and the fair market at work. With no regulations. I think capitalism is healthy in moderation (definitely better than anything else we’ve tried in human history) but it doesn’t work everywhere, and definitely doesn’t work for public services.
I should also point out that the film was based on a non-fiction book, and the movie did a pretty good job of setting an accurate setting for that time and place, but it wasn’t a documentary and for the most part the specific scenes in the film were fictional (and of course the dialog was all fictional). Even key characters were fictional; for example Bill “the Butcher” Cutting was a fictional creation but based on real life figure William Pool.
I think the real situation was worse than that. Private fire brigades operated as full-on protection rackets. They often set the fires themselves, targeting houses owned by people who could well afford to pay for their “services,” which might be re-negotiated on the spot, and who would have nice things that could be lifted during the “rescue.”
Police operated in a similar manner, working hand-in-hand with burglars and fences.
You may be overestimating the movie’s accuracy, which has taken a hit from historians on multiple points.
Firefighting up until 1865 in New York was an all-volunteer affair, which produced many dedicated firefighters but also a number of rowdies who got into fights with competitors. Firemen were involved in the infamous New York draft riots, for bad and good.
You could say that capitalism was actually a major factor in ending the freewheeling days and compelling a professional force to be organized, by order of the state legislature. Insurance companies got tired of paying out claims because of limited effectiveness and disorganization on the part of volunteers.
Hell, in the US in the 21st century, firefighters let a house burn down because the county went to a subscription model. The firefighters only stuck around to make sure it didn’t spread to their (paid up) neighbors.
The fucked up thing is that the whole world’s already on a subscription model. We call it “taxes”. That Tennessee county and the Libertarians (ok, some Libertarians) just want to change it to an incredibly inefficient piecemeal subscription model that can fuck you in the ass.
The Guild of Firefighters had been outlawed by the Patrician the previous year after many complaints. The point was that, if you bought a contract from the Guild, your house would be protected against fire. Unfortunately, the general Ankh-Morpork ethos quickly came to the fore and fire fighters would tend to go to prospective clients’ houses in groups, making loud comments like ‘Very inflammable looking place, this’ and ‘Probably go up like a firework with just one carelessly-dropped match, know what I mean?
I’m pretty sure @eenerms is getting cancelled quite soon. Apparently slow learner and inability to follow mod instructions are NOT two great tastes that taste great together.
