It's funny how we do things without knowing why. It's sort of like the story about how our current railroad track widths tie back to the width of a Roman war horse's rump.When I lived in Philly, one of my coworkers was a former fire chief for a neighborhood fire company. He was telling me about how the manual they used instructed the crew to immediately place a ladder against the burning structure. He never understood why the manual would require this action so he investigated why it existed. Turns out that this was the practice decades ago but now unnecessary. Turns out that back in the day, the fire company that was first to arrive at a fire would place their ladder against the burning building to claim the right to charge the owner for their services.