Back then, they recruited firefighters out of the saloons.
They still did that in the 1970s, and might even now for all I know. One of my brothers told me of when he was logging near Oakridge, OR around 1974, and the Forest Service guys and a couple of sheriff's deputies would go around behind the bar to round up all the loggers who would run out the back as soon as one of the USFS guys went in the front door.