In ancient Rome, Crassus owned the fire department. When there was a home on fire, Crassus would negotiate the price for extinguishing the fire with the owners or tenants.
I mean, this is close to being right, but it's wrong in every one of the details.
Crassus didn't own the fire department. Crassus owned a bunch of slaves who he had trained to put out fires.
Crassus didn't charge for extinguishing fires. If your house was on fire, Crassus took his team and negotiated to buy your house. If you sold it to him, he'd put out the fire. There was no flow of money from you to Crassus under any circumstances. (But he could get a low price, because the value of your house was constantly dropping while it burned.)
In imperial times, private firefighting groups were illegal since they were viewed as a potential source of rebellion. (Using your own slaves to put out fires on your own property was of course fully legal.) It's in my mind that Crassus benefited from similar laws, but he was active during the Republic. Maybe someone else knows more about the precise timings.
A fire department is a service that will put out fires for the public.
Crassus only put out fires on his own property. Rome didn't have a fire department. Firefighting was expected to occur on a volunteer, as-needed basis.
Crassus would also negotiate deals with neighboring houses that were in danger if the fire spread. In densely-packed Rome a fire two or three houses down could suddenly make continuing to own your little piece of property a risky venture.
Plus ça change...