8. New York City’s Fire Department is Technically Older Than The U.S.

Untapped CitiesIMG_7147 2One of the first styles of “fire trucks”

The first organized fire fighting group started as a result of a Fire Ordinance in New York City in 1648, when it was a Dutch colony known as New Amsterdam. Back then, dirty chimneys warranted a fine, which helped pay for hooks, ladders and buckets. The United States wouldn’t become a sovereign country until 1776, some 128 years after that. But the legacy of the Dutch colony remained in New York in the form of firefighting.