2007-10-12 14:12:21 · 3 answers · asked by orf2jax 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
In many communities with volunteer fire departments, those who subscribed had a marker on their house so the FD would (theoretically) respond to such a house if it caught on fire (and ignore one that didn't). Ans many larger towns had more than one volunteer FD (this was shown in passing in the movie "Gangs of New York").
This is one reason volunteer fire dept's were incorporated into city FD's, so now everyone in town pays taxes (some of which go to essential services), and everyone is covered in event of fire.
I'm not saying this is the story behind the single star, but it is typical of the kind of markers used for volunteer FD's.
2007-10-13 09:12:48 · answer #1 · answered by narvvik 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
a star was also a symbol there was a loss in the immediate family during WWII.
2007-10-13 10:24:41 · answer #2 · answered by Marvin R 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think it has something to do with age of the house and if it was pre-Revolutionary War or not
2007-10-12 21:22:31 · answer #3 · answered by katlvr125 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋