Facts are technically correct but framed in a way that likely leads to a wrong impression. Learn more in Methodology.
Historical records identify institutions Franklin founded (e.g., the Library Company of Philadelphia and the Union Fire Company) and show they were the earliest organizations of their kind in the colonies.
Evidence shows Benjamin Franklin co-founded two important early institutions—the Library Company of Philadelphia (1731) and the Union Fire Company (1736)—but describing these as the first public library and the first volunteer fire department is oversimplified and misleading.
The Library Company of Philadelphia is widely regarded as the first successful subscription lending library in the American colonies, founded by Franklin and his associates, and is often cited in popular accounts as an early "public" library because it enabled broader, fee-based access to books. However, the American Library Association notes that "the first public library in the U.S. is contested" and explicitly describes Franklin’s Library Company as a subscription library supported by members, while the Peterborough Town Library (founded in 1833 in New Hampshire) is recognized as the first free, tax-supported public library open to all residents.
On firefighting, Franklin helped organize the Union Fire Company in Philadelphia in 1736, commonly described as the first formally organized all-volunteer fire company in the colonies, and an important model for later volunteer companies. Yet historical accounts also point to earlier organized fire entities: Boston had a paid fire department by 1679 and a "Mutual Fire Society" in 1718, and some historians identify Boston’s Mutual Fire Society as the first volunteer fire department, with Franklin’s Union Fire Company being the first in Philadelphia and the first formally organized community-focused volunteer fire company of its type, rather than absolutely the first in America.
Verdict: Misleading, because Franklin did found a pioneering subscription library and a seminal volunteer fire company, but calling them flatly the first "public library" and the first "volunteer fire department" obscures key distinctions (subscription vs. free, tax-supported public access; local fire societies vs. later, more formalized volunteer departments) and overstates the uniqueness of his "firsts" beyond what historians and professional organizations clearly support.