And they had to reckon with the very worst danger: the organized form of murder and arson known as war.Ī common problem in all advanced agrarian societies was the prevention of uncontrolled fire in cities. They had to oppress attempts at deliberate fire setting.
People had to rely on other people's caution. With all the fires burning in a city, one moment of carelessness might cause a conflagration. But more and more, this natural force manifested itself almost exclusively in the guise of anthropogenic fire. Of course, it was fire as a natural force with its self-generating destructiveness that was feared. Among the growing urban populations, fire was regarded with greater anxiety, for several reasons: with the proliferation of fires, the risks of conflagrations increased, and with the accumulation of property, people had more to loose. Specialized pyrotechnic crafts emerged, such as blacksmiths and potters. The uses of fire became increasingly more varied. From now on, however, the main concern became almost the opposite: to keep the fires that were lit for numerous purposes from spreading and from running out of control. During the long first stage of human fire use, the main concern always was to keep the communal fire burning.
In all agrarian societies with permanent settlements, new uses of fire and new attitudes toward fire developed. Johan Goudsblom, in Encyclopedia of Energy, 2004 2.3 Fire in Settled Agrarian Societies
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