FIRE DEPARTMENT DOINGS
NOTE—Special Fire Business News, with proposals, etc., will be found on page 267.——EDITOR.
In his inaugural address Mayor William H. Kimball of Rochester, N. H., recommended the purchase of more fire apparatus for the city.
Dunkirk, N. Y., is to hold an election to decide on the bond issue of $30,000 for the purpose of installing and equipping a modern fire alarm system.
A plan for installing a new fire alarm system has been considered by a fire committee of Chicopee, Mass. A system of either eight or twelve circuits is proposed.
The next convention, the forty-fifth, of the Iowa Firemen’s Association will be held at Boone, Iowa, on November 14 and 15, 1922. E. E. Parsons, of Marion, Iowa, is secretary.
A new fire alarm signal purchased for the Metuchen, N. J., department has been lost in transit and a tracer has been sent out from the local railroad station. A tower is to be erected on the Eagle Hook and Ladder Company’s house, surmounted the signal built upon a platform.
The public and parochial schools of Glen Cove, L. I., N. Y„ are to be equipped with fire alarm boxes under the direction of Chief Charles Miller of the Glen Cove fire department. Chief Miller is now trying to have fire boxes installed at street corners so as to give alarms direct to headquarters.
The floor of the fire house on Water Street, according to Commissioner of Public Safety Norman A. Boyd of Binghamton, N. Y., will have to be reconstructed in order to hold the apparatus which is being installed there. A concrete floor seven inches in thickness will probably be added.
In a report of the London fire brigade it is shown that the losses by fire during 1921 were 2,500,000 as compared with 1,941,555 in 1920. The brigade answered 6,740 alarms and the number of fires was 4,550. The loss of life amounted to approximately one hundred, many of these casualities occurring at small fires before the brigade was called.
A change in the designation of assistant chiefs of the Poughkeepsie, N. Y., fire department has been made and hereafter they will be known as deputy chiefs instead. The foremen of the various companies will be known as captains. The change in title was suggested to the fire apparatus committee of the board of aldermen by Chief Noll and was agreed upon.
Fires in the city of London, England, according to Dr. Waldo, the city coroner, have been on the increase. He stated that there had been 225 outbreaks of fire in the city during 1921, as compared with an annual average of 215 for the past twenty years. This does not appear a very large number compared with 327 alarms of fire in New York city over the New Year’s holiday. Dr. Waldo, speaking of the causes of the London fires, says: “I consider that from one-third to one-half of the fires are caused by lights thrown down by smokers.”
The city council of Marshall. Mo., has taken up the matter of purchasing a fire truck for the use of the city fire department. Representatives of various makes of trucks were before the council recently, explaining their makes of machines, and it was voted that the mayor and a special committee go into the matter thoroughly and report at a later meeting. It is the sense of the council to buy a pumper. The council has recently purchased 500 feet of hose and with the addition of a motor pumper, it is believed that the efficiency of the department can be raised considerably.
A fire prevention week was started in Pittsburgh, Pa., on January 23 under the auspices of the Pittsburgh Association of Credit Men, it being under the personal direction of the president of the association, A. D. Sallee. Several fire prevention films were shown throughout the week in all the motion picture theatres. A large meeting of city officials and business men was held on January 27, at which T. Alfred Fleming, supervisor of the conservation department of the National Board of Fire Underwriters, spoke on Credit Versus Waste. Mr. Fleming also delivered a ten-minute address at the Broad Casting Station of the Westinghouse Company, using the radio telephone, which is arranged to reach over 50,000 homes.
Considerable friction having developed as to whether the chemical car of the Suffield, Conn., fire department should answer alarms outside the fire district at a conference between Chief L. G. Allen and Assistant Chief Frank Smith of the fire department and the village fire-commission, a compromise was effected whereby the matter of the town of Suffield purchasing a chemical truck from the village is to be taken up and voted upon at the next annual meeting of the town of Suffield. At the same time the town will take up the matter of purchasing a lighter car, possibly a pumper. Both cars would then be used not only for fires in districts of Suffield and West Suffield but also will be sent to any fire within the town limits. The matter was left in abeyance until the annual town meeting.
Through the action of the city council of Tiffin, Ohio, the saving of approximately $5,000 a year will be effected through the reduction of the salaries of the employees of the safety and service departments by ten per cent. The matter was placed before the heads of the department by a committee of the council, which showed them that it was absolutely impossible to pay the present rate of wages. When Chief John A. Grogg placed the matter before the members of the fire department, they accepted the reduction without question. An ordinance was then passed by the council by which the changes of salary were fixed as follows: The salary of the chief under the ordinance is $135 a month, present salary $150: two captains, one electrician and two motor mechanics, $3.75 a day each, present salary $4.17; four firemen at engine house No. 1 and two at engine house No. 2, $3.60 a day, present salary $4; first year men, $3.40 a day for the first six months, present pay $3.80, and special firemen as needed, $3.40 a day, present pay $3.80. Firemen are given every fourth day off duty and 10 days’ annual vacation with pay.