Historical facts, firefighting used to be private industry where you voluntarily chose your fire department and paid their price just like any other good or service.
There is no evidence that they did a worse job during that time after accounting for worse equipment and poorer communications affect on their performance.
There is a myth that they would go watch peoples houses burn down without helping if they weren't paid up and didn't pay on the spot, but there is 0 historical evidence that ever happened even a single time.