Ancient Fire Hydrants

People in my village use vats to cook food enough for the whole village to consume in big gatherings like weddings, funerals and festivals - but I've never seen a big vat as big as the one's shown above in solid iron-cast. Definitely, these can hold a ton of dishes all at once yet there's the question about how were the cooks supposed to stir the ingredients without breaking their necks? The vats apparently were not used for cooking, instead they're prominently placed in front or beside a house, filled with water and used as ready hydrants in case of fire. Well, talk about fire safety in medieval times!