Fire buckets.
In the old town, volunteers had water buckets to hand and ran with them to the fire to join a human chain from the fire pond - there were several around the town -  to the location of the fire. The owner of the house would pre-designate a friend to help save as much of the contents as possible, dashing into the burning building to rescue the most valuable pieces, as the water gang poured water onto the fire in the hope of saving the dwelling.