In addition to the need for members of fire societies to keep leather water buckets on hand they were also required to own 'two Bags,, each Bag one yard and a half long, and one yard and a half round, with strings at the mouths, that they may be drawn up with the greatest dispatch.' In addition, 'the Buckets and Bags [were] to be marked and numbered with the first letter of [the] owner's Christian name, and his surname at length.' Bags were to be folded and kept in one of the two buckets while a bed key and screw driver were to be stored in the other bucket. During a fire, bags were meant to be filled with silver, small valuables and papers, if things ran smoothly, the owner claimed his belongings afterward. See Cushing, 'Fire Societies,' in The New England Gallaxy IV, no. 1 (summer 1962):10-20.