A fire department as we know it today did not actually exist in the Roman Empire (with a few exceptions). The emperors were probably concerned that a group of armed, organized men might be a problem. So the citizens organized themselves. The Wikipedia article on this is very informative [click here]. However, there were isolated organized fire stations in the Empire. One of them was in Ostia.
Ostia (today Ostia Antica) was the port city of Rome. Goods of all kinds were loaded through the ports and transported to nearby Rome. Today Ostia Antica lies inland because the coastline has shifted.
Research
If you do research on the subject of the fire department, you will always come across building no. 9 in Rome [Wikipedia click here]. Unfortunately, the building looks very unspectacular and would not be perceived as a fire department by the player in the cityscape.
From the fire department in Ostia Antica [click here], there are very good sketches and floor plans that I can use for reconstruction. The problem here is that it is a very large building. But since the player needs a fire station already at the beginning of the game, there will be at least one small “fantasy” fire station. The one from Ostia Antica is supposed to be a reward that only larger and wealthier cities can afford.
The arrangement of the windows corresponds – except for the back of the building – almost exactly to the original (as far as one can reconstruct the window arrangement). The doors are also in the correct size and arrangement. Overall, the first floor is a fairly accurate copy of the original.
Some trickery had to be done in the construction of the roof. There, the building does not match the visualizations I know. The problem was that the roof took up a very large area. Since players often look at the city from above, they would only see one gigantic roof. Therefore, I added two atriums to make the roof look a bit more alive.
The problem with this fire station is that it is relatively large. But since the fire was an everyday problem of the Romans, there will still be a smaller, but more inefficient fire station.
When researching the topic of ancient Roman fire departments, one always reads the story of Crassus, who went to the homeowners when a fire threatened their home. But he would only let his firemen put out the fire if the homeowner would immediately sell him the house at a ridiculous price. Since there were no state fire stations, the offer had to be accepted willy-nilly.
If you are interested in the topic of fire fighting in Rome, you will be amazed at the equipment that was available at that time. I then suggest some googling, it’s worth it!
