We have rain barrels under our eaves at the house-- one on each corner -- we use them to irrigate the kitchen vegetable garden. We also have a 1500 gallon one down at the barn that catches rainwater off the barn. We do use that for watering the squash and veggies that are fall harvest that we keep in that garden (we have a hand pump to get the water flowing in the hose), but we also have it just in case of fire. We have very real fire danger in the late summer and our nearest fire department is miles away (and is actually the US Forest Service).