I watched this film on a DVD that was rammed with short films from the period. I didn't watch all of them as the main problem with these type of things that their value is more in their historical novelty value rather than entertainment. So to watch them you do need to be put in the correct context so that you can keep this in mind and not watch it with modern eyes. With the Primitives & Pioneers DVD collection though you get nothing to help you out, literally the films are played one after the other (the main menu option is "play all") for several hours. With this it is hard to understand their relevance and as an educational tool it falls down as it leaves the viewer to fend for themselves, which I'm sure is fine for some viewers but certainly not the majority. What it means is that the DVD saves you searching the web for the films individually by putting them all in one place but that's about it.
Similar to the film I had seen earlier of a train pulling into a station, here we have the same "diagonal" setup from Lumière as he films the fire "engines" of the days rushing across the frame towards the fire. This is all we see of the action and it isn't anything particularly "new" even in the context of Lumière's films. However what is interesting is to see the street clear and then return to normal afterwards. In fact this could have been the reason for the film and it would have been more interesting for it. Sadly it doesn't have enough time to do this because when we start the emergency services are already on their way. Also, afterwards the returning "normality" is rather distracted from by a man who does that "sh1t - a camera" thing when he spots it and cuts back out of shot.
So a shame then because it could have been a very interesting observational film but instead it just comes close and is all the more frustrating than if it had just been some horses going across the shot.