Why Rome's firefighters tore down the house that was not burning

In ancient Rome the fire brigade would stop outside your house late at night, and what they pulled out was not water but an axe. They had come to pull down your house - the one that was still perfectly fine. Rome was never short of water, but all of it sat at ground level while the fire climbed by itself. So in 6 AD Augustus raised the Vigiles, about seven thousand strong, carrying axes, hooks and long poles. They looked at the house next in line, not the one alight, and opened a gap. Fire travels through wood, but it cannot burn empty ground - the same idea we still use to cut a firebreak ahead of a wildfire. #rome #firebrigade #shorts #axe #ancienthistory #ancientengineering #engineering