TWENTY ONE YEARS A CHIEF. Chief Frederick Macy has been head of the fire department of New Bedford, Mass., for over twenty-one years, daring which he has done the city much service. In that time he has seen the fire loss as low as $6,982.41 (in 1885), and as high as $134,729.82 in 1884. Last year it was $63,638-76, with in surance $973,581.34, as against $78,909.83 with insurance of $705,800 in 1896—the number of alarms in 1897 being as follows: Bell alarms, sixty three; still and telephone alarms, eighty-five—total, 148. The most serious fire with which the department had to contend was that which took place on February 27, at the Acushnet mill, when a boiler explosion killed two mill employes and caused a destructive fire, at which the New Bedford department was ably helped by the private departments of the Acushnet and Hathaway mills, with their powerful pumps. At…
