>That is the difference. Firemen and firefighter. I think the original term (back in the 1600s) was fire warden though.

From WordWeb dictionary: fireman
1. Play in which children take the roles of firemen and pretend to put out a fire
2. A person who tends fires
3. A pitcher who does not start the game

But it gave me a good synonym for (2): stoker, and verb stoke. I'm back to 322.

>>>The men who shoveled coal into the boiler for the steam engine were called firemen.

This habit actually confuses me a lot - using a word which has another meaning as well, while there's a completely good unambiguous word (a rarity in English!) out there which doesn't. Why would a stoker be called something that can be confused with his opposite?