Spanish Fire Marks.

When I was a young girl, my father introduced me to firemarks. What's a firemark, you ask? In the early days, people would contract with an insurance agency to have their homes protected against fire. The insurance agency would post their firemark on the home, and if a fire broke out, they would fight it. If the house next door caught on fire and wasn't insured by the same company, they would let it burn. Brutal!

Eventually, cities and counties took on the burden of fighting fires, every home received equal treatment, and firemarks went the way of the dodo bird. They can still be found in certain areas of the country - we found some in Philadelphia in historic areas, for example. But they are hard to find, even in antique shops.

When we were in Toledo, Spain, we found a home with a firemark. We don't know if they have the same system as we used to have, but we thought it was intriguing.

It says (basically) "Assurance from Fires." I would like to find a history of firemarks in Spain . . . someday maybe I can put Diana to researching it :)