THE ECONOMICS OF FIRE PROTECTION: FROM THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON TO RURAL/METRO

This article examines the history of fire protection in London from the Great Fire of 1666 to the present and argues that many of the popular perceptions of market failure in the provision of fire protection that are repeated in standard economics textbooks are in fact myths. In reality, fire protection began in the private sector and only transferred to the public sector when insurance companies faced the prospect of collecting escalating premiums from their clients. To this day, voluntary and private provision in parts of the USA is a model of how fire protection can be provided more cheaply and more effectively outside the public sector.