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.

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.

Even though they were a privately held, funded, and operated company, their apparatus, uniforms, and equipment were identical to that of the city fire department.

They used the same communication and radio frequencies as the city department to facilitate contact at fire scenes, and training was integrated between the two organizations to better foster understanding of procedures, cooperation, and efficiency of effort.

In Cincinnati, firefighting and saving property from fire began with the beginning of the village creating a long established tradition.

Founded in 1788, the village appointed a "night watch" in 1789, who like the Vigiles Urbani of Rome, patrolled the streets looking for structure fires so that people could sleep soundly and at peace in their beds.

In the Cincinnati Division of Fire, the term "night watch" continues to this day designating the over night period and the term is also used by fire personnel to designate assignment to the station's communications room during the overnight period, an assignment based upon a rotating schedule of personnel from all companies in the house.

1 was formed with an authorized membership of 100, its purpose was the saving of lives, protecting property and preventing theft at fire scenes.

The minutes of a Special Meeting of the Board of Trustees on July 23, 1897 show authorization for a 12 year lease/option to buy for a property at 114 East 8th Street, just around the corner from the Bowen Alley location, to be used for the construction of a new Salvage House.

The minutes of that meeting also show acceptance of a bid from William Schuberth in the amount of $6220.00 to construct the building on that site using the Salvage Corps plans and specifications.

[4][5] In 1908, a second station was put into service on the corner of Barnard and Lowry Streets, near Spring Grove Avenues and a block south of the east end of the then new Western Hills Viaduct.

In 1924, a new Headquarters building to house the Corps operations was built and opened at 912-918 Elm Street, behind Crosley Square, the offices and studios of WLW radio.

The Underwriter's Salvage Corps in Cincinnati employed "...the first successful motor-propelled fire vehicle to be put in operation anywhere in the United States."

The body had an open bed with a bench seat for the Corpsmen on each side and a wire basket behind the cab for tools and equipment, the configuration being nearly identical to that of the horse-drawn wagons that had been in service since the beginning of the organization.

In America's Colonial Period, when an uncontrolled structure fire almost guaranteed that the building would burn to the ground due to a lack of adequate firefighting capability, volunteer organizations of concerned citizens rescued victims and carried out furniture, specifically the costly bed first,[2]: 3  and any other property that could be reached and removed as the only option open to them.

[7][8] This advance in technology would rule firefighting until the early 20th Century when fire trucks with gasoline engines replaced pumpers powered by steam and drawn by horses.

[2]: 29–31 The Salvage Corps also dealt with ventilating smoke, which could easily damage merchandise, as well as life-threatening poisonous fumes, an inherent danger in firefighting that could cost any personnel working the fire scene their life.