When fires broke out in 18th century Baltimore, historian Clarence H. Forrest wrote, “Then everybody became a fireman, and with the primitive appliances at hand attempted to extinguish the flames.”
Clarence, writing at the end of the 19th century, notes times had changed with the adoption of dedicated firemen companies. “Now,” he wrote, “the few fight the flames and the many are spectators.”
Baltimore has changed greatly since those times, but the same idea remains: the few fight the flames…