English: Ten fire insurance comanies in 1833 joined forces to establish the London Fire Engine Establishment in an attempt to better coordinate fire-fighting in London and to minimise (minimize) fire payouts.

Prior to 1833, insurance companies organised their own individual private fire-fighting forces and they responded to a fire only if the property was insured by their insurance companies. When a major fire broke out and more than one property was on fire, competing insurance company-owned firefighters often fought for access to water, causing costly delays to the fire-fighting effort itself.

This is one of the earliest manual fire-fighting apparatuses on exhibit in the London Fire Brigade Museum. Note the wooden pipe used to spray water to the fire.