The permanent exhibition which introduces the visitors to the development of fire-protection from the prehistoric age up to nowadays opened in 1957 and was renewed several times. It acquaints the visitors with the development of fire, the life and work of the early fire-fighters, and their cultural heritage. Beside the old fire-fighting equipments, the gigantic turbo-reactive extinguishing machine which was built with advanced technology can bee seen at the exhibition.

The existence of fire is older than the history of humanity. Fires in nature were extinguished by the most ancient agent: water. Throughout the history of fire-fighting several different dusts, foams, and gases served as excellent materials to distinguish fire. Still, even nowadays, and probably will be in the next millennia, most of the fires are distinguished by water. One of the equipments of extinguishing with water is the hose.

The only hydraulicon existing in the world today from the Roman age was unearthed by Lajos Nagy archaeologist in 1897-1946. South of the Aquincum Museum In Óbuda while the bases of the transformer of the Electric Co. was being digged up the workers found an antique Roman cellar with caved in ceilings. They found broken bronze pipes and the components of an organ under the ruins. They also found bronze tablets which had data saying that the instrument was given as a present to Aquincum's fire-department, which was lead by Gaius Iulius Viatorinus, in 228 AD.

The respirator in use today which functions with condensed air was devised by Károly Kőszegi Mártony (1783-1848) in 1830. The most important part of the life saving equipment was the iron flask containing pressed air which was attached to the back of its carrier.