Fire Throughout Civilization

Here is an excerpt from Britannica to get my started on the topic of fire throughout history, 

"The original source of fire undoubtedly was lightning, and such fortuitously ignited blazes remained the only source of fire for eons. For some years Peking man, about 500,000 BC, was believed to be the earliest unquestionable user of fire; evidence uncovered in Kenya in 1981 and in South Africa in 1988, however, suggests that the earliest controlled use of fire by hominids dates from about 1,420,000 years ago. Not until about 7000 BC did Neolithic man acquire reliable fire-making techniques, in the form either of drills, saws, and other friction-producing implements or of flint struck against pyrites. Even then it was more convenient to keep a fire alive permanently than to reignite it."

We have understood fire almost as soon as we existed.  Since then we have learned to heat ourselves with it, cook with it, and fear it.  

Examples - 

Modern fire fighting has advanced so much in the past 10,000 years.  One can assume that in early villages, after a fire struck, it was either stamped out, or the village was just rebuilt.  

In Chinese methods, fortresses, temples, and buildings, large iron vats of water were stored for fire extinguishments.  When a fire struck the large wooden buildings, the iron pots were knocked over, spilling the water everywhere and drowning the fire.

In Northern European homes in the medieval period, the reed roofs that were commonly used were treated with a flame resistant chemical.

In 18th century Turkey (was the Ottoman Empire), an assigned "Becki Baba" would march through the city of the fire with drums, calling out all young men to the location of the fire.  Then small pumps would be used to fill buckets, which were dumped in mass on the fire.

And then the horse driven fire-engine, electric pump, and diesel engine changed it all...