WHY SOME FIRE DEPARTMENTS ARE INEFFICIENT.

WHY SOME FIRE DEPARTMENTS ARE INEFFICIENT.

Specially written for FIRE AND WATER ENGINEERING.

It is not an unusual cry, when a disastrous fire takes place, that, if the fire department had been handled properly and intelligently, the loss of property would have been considerably less. It is claimed that the firemen were too slow in turning out; that the possibilities of the fire attaining such a height were not sufficiently calculated by the chief or his deputies; that the attack was not vigorous enough; or that it was not directed against the most vulnerable point. Hence, the curbstone critic argues that the chief of the department is not worth his salt, and that the whole department should be reorganised from top to bottom. Nine times out of ten, however, this ornery against the department or its chief is groundless, being based on ignorance or founded on personal or political grounds. Its not unfrequent result is to exert an influence upon those outside, and the outcome is more or less demoralising, so far as the department is concerned. The injection either of the personal element or of politics, therefore, forms an obstacle to the successful administration and operation of a fire department, and the resulting criticism, by lowering the confidence of the public in the conduct and the competency of its chief officers, disheartens these and demoralises the men. That inefficiency should thus ensue is a direct consequence, while it is, besides, a fruitful cause of hindrance all round to the extinction of fires. Another cause of inefficiency and, therefore, of evil results, is more direct and more fatal to the well-being of both the lire department and the public, and is to be laid at the door of the building and fire departments themselves. It is, in brief, the lack of due inspection (1) of the plans of every new building. (2) of its internal arrangements and fittings, and (3) of its facilities for extinguishing incipient fires or holding them in check till the department arrives on the scene. Inattention to such details often involves disastrous conflagrations, perfectly avoidable, if greater care had been exercised in looking after the details referred to. The fire department, of course, might not show any inefficiency it might show the greatest skill in handling the fire. But the loss, or much of it might have been avoided, had the fire department officials not been neglect fill of their duty in the beginning. Hence, the charge of inefficiency is made by the press and others, and not without good cause. Another hindrance to efficiency, for which the lire department is not at all responsible, is the neglect of the municipality, either through parsimony or ignorance, to install an up-to-date tire alarm telegraph system, and, incidentally, the occasional neglect of the fire department authorities to exercise due care in investigating the condition of the system, its boxes, cables, batteries and the like. A fourth is to be found (1) in that laxity of inspection, on the part of the fire department, which allows explosives and combustibles to lie stored without permission on private premises or without their quantity, class, place and manner of storage being duly inspected—-such inspection to be at frequent and very near intervals; (2) in allowing the accumulation of rubbish—say, near the furnace or steam pipes—likely to produce spontaneous combustion or rapid deflagration, if a fire is once started; and (3) by neglect of due supervision over the setting of the boilers, the steam pipes and gas meters, and that of electrical wires and their installation. All, or any one of these, if faulty, serves either to start fires that may smoulder for many hours, and eat their way upwards and laterally in such a way as to cause a blaze to break out in many different parts of the building at once, or, by exploding, spread the flames on all sides, and turn what would otherwise have been a small fire into a dangerous conflagration. A fifth and very common hindrance to efficiency is the miscalled course of economy persisted in by many city and town corporations—that of starving the fire department. Commonsense, as well as experience will show that,, unless there are firemen enough, and these well disciplined and thoroughly drilled, the flames cannot be mastered, while it also stands to reason that, unless these firemen, however competent, are supplied with adequate apparatus, reliable hose, and plenty of water, an otherwise easily handled fire is almost sure to grow either into a conflagration or. at all events, into one involving a great loss of property—perhaps, of life. A sixth cause that militates against the efficiency of a fire department is that of the constant changing of the superior officers. In some instances this is due to politics—this occurring chiefly in those paid departments, where these officers are fairly well paid, or where they have it in their power to add to their influence by means of appointments to the ranks or even the higher offices, or, as has been known to be the case, where they can make money for themselves in the way of commission (to call it by no harsher name) on the purchase of hose, horses or apparatus. In the so-called volunteer departments such changes, as a rule, take place every year, not because there is money in the office, but from the idea of letting as many as possible enjoy the honor and glory of holding such a position—a motive which does more credit to the heart than the head, and, by being blindly followed out, tends to keep the department in a constant condition of flux. “New men, new ways” is a proverbial saying that cuts both ways, and for firemen never to be quite sure as to what changes for better or worse may be in store for them at the beginning of every year does not tend towards either discipline or efficiency. A man who has shown himself to be a good chief should be kept in office as long as he is able to perform its duties efficiently—always provided, of course, that his moral character is not such as to bring discredit on the department or those responsible for bis election. With a well triecl and experienced fireman, who has himself been trained to obey, any volunteer department, provided always the municipality does its part liberally, can be relied upon to render a good account of itself, even under the most adverse conditions. Otherwise, confusion reigns and inefficiency is supreme.

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