At first this looks like another of those innumerable fire brigade movies of the era in which you saw the horses charging pellmell out of the firehouse, pulling the firemen and the equipment. Usually they would be on wheels, occasionally on sleigh runners, but always the same: fire departments from Buffalo, New York, Chicago and probably Omsk and Tomsk.This one is different: you see not only the fire brigade heading out for the fire, you see the site of the fire itself. It does not sound like much today, but at the time it was absolutely revolutionary. It was probably one of the earliest pieces of film editing on record and undoubtedly the first for a straight actuality.