Vienna gets all fired up over 300 years of battling blazes

VIENNA, Austria Ages have passed since man learned to controland use fire. But fighting fires, in a professionally organized way,is just 300 years old.

Vienna's fire department, which regards itself as the oldest ofits kind in the world, will be marking its tricentennial inSeptember.

City historians say it all began in the year 1686 with four"fire serfs" who were hired by a lower chamber magistrate, GeorgAltschaffer. After their training, these four became the first paidfirefighting unit in history.

The fire serfs - the term "fire department" first came intobeing in the 19th century - were naturally just a single cadre. Whenthere was a fire, other …