The Underwriter's Salvage Corps in Cincinnati, Ohio was created and operated by the Underwriters Association, a syndicate of Cincinnati-based fire insurance companies, for the purpose of reducing financial losses to their companies from claims due to building fires by providing a company of trained men with proper equipment to work in conjunction with the city fire department to protect life, structures and their contents from fire, smoke damage, and damage from the water that was used to fight the fire.(1) The Salvage Corps worked to save and protect the structure and it's contents while the city fire department concentrated on rescuing persons from the burning structure and extinguishing the flames. The Salvage Corps provided this service to all property owners without charge, whether they were insured or not. Modelled after Bill Bullwinkle's Fire Insurance Patrol (1871-1959) in Chicago(2), the Underwriter's Salvage Corps in Cincinnati began operation November 24, 1886 and ceased operations on June 30, 1959 when the Cincinnati Fire Department Squad 1 assumed its role. The Salvage Corps was organized in 1886 by William Calvert, Frederick Rauh, and John A. Townsley and operated under a Board of Trustees as a private company. Authorization to operate in conjunction with the city fire department was granted through the authority of the city Board of Fire Commissioners, who granted the company superintendent Herman F. Newman, and later the members of the Corps, equal status and authority as any city fireman. This legal structure would continue for the next 16 years. Under an act of the Ohio Legislature passed April 29, 1902, William H. Calvert, Karl A. Benndorf, J. W. Montgomery, William Stredelman, and Edward E. Shipley reorganized the Salvage Corps into a non-profit corporation, a structure it would retain until it dissolved in 1959. Entitled H.B. 636, the purpose of the act was to allow formation of corporations for "...discovering and preventing fires and of saving property and life..." by providing for the establishment of companies of men with proper equipment to accomplish the tasks mentioned. These companies were also authorized "...to enter any building at any time for the purpose of inspection and any building on fire or which may be exposed to or in danger of taking fire..." in order to protect the structure, property, or life therein during or after the fire has been extinguished. The statute concluded by restating the line of authority at a fire scene as