Illustration 7: The Bucket Brigade
The basic Bucket Brigade filled the buckets at a cistern, well, canal, or other source of water and then passed the buckets of water down a line of colonists to the person who would then heave the water on to the fire. The empty buckets would then be returned by another line of colonists as quickly as possible to the source of water to be refilled.
When fire engines were introduced in the 18th century, the bucket brigade would fill the cistern on the engine while the firemen pumped the engine forcing water through a nozzle to deliver the water to the fire. (See engraving above).