FIRE DEPARTMENTS NEWS

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FIRE DEPARTMENTS NEWS

—The glorious Fourth falls this year on Friday, and Saturday is also to be observed as a holiday by the compositors and pressmen. We are therefore obliged to go to press on Thursday without the latest news of the week. It will appear, however, in our next issue.

—The Perfect Fire Extinguisher and Manufacturing Company of St. Louis, Mo., is arranging to open an office in New York for the transaction of Eastern business.

—The Great Western Oil Company is endeavoring to estab lish a plant at Davenport, la., at a spot which the water-works company considers dangerously near its works, and the latter company is protesting vigorously. It is pointed out that in case of a fire at the oil works the water-works would be endangered and the city liable to have its water supply cut off.

—Chief Engineer Henry Heinmiller of the Columbus (O.) Fire Department has drawn up a new set of rules for the government of the department.

—One of the new style hose wagons has been assigned to No. 4 Engine Company, New York city, in place of the old reel. It carries 1250 feet of hose.

—San Francisco has received, tested and accepted her new Hale water tower recently described and illustrated in FIRE AND WATER.

—The town board of Cozad, Neb., has ordered a fire apparatus to cost $1000.

—A reward of $500 is offered for the detection of the incendiary who recently burned the James S. Allen factory at Brockton, Mass.

—There is a movement on foot among the employees to get the commissioners to give them a vacation this summer. They say they arc as much entitled to one as the police who get more pay and time to themselves in a year. The employees should be given a vacation of at least ten days. There should also be an extra man in the department like police supernumeraries, who could relieve the regulars when they wanted to take a day. Such things are done in other cities, and why not in Troy ? Let the commissioners by all means grant the boys a vacation this, summer, for they are certainly worthy of it.— Troy Observer.

—Chief Engineer Morris Meyers of the fire department of Danbury, Conn., reports for the year ending June 15 fortyseven alarms of fire. The department consists of a chief and an assistant chief, 30 paid men and 110 volunteers, with two hose wagons, one steamer, one hook and ladder truck, four hose carriages, two jumpers and 550c feet of good hose. The chief recommends an increase in salaries, the building of a new engine-house, and exchanging the present truck for a lighter one.

—We have to thank Chief J. W. Dickinson of the Cleveland (O.) Fire Department for a copy of his latest report.

—Chief Hendrick of the New Haven Fire Department issued a general order directing various additional precautions to be observed July 4. No leaves of absence will be granted to permanent men between the mornings of July 3 and 5.

—A large number of business houses at Troy, Ala., were burned on Monday, with a loss of $100.oco; Rahway, N. J., also had a $100,000 blaze in a paper factory, and at Elmira, N. Y., a large hardware house was burned through the ignition of some Japan dye from a broken lantern, the resulting loss being between $100,000 and $150,000.

—At the annual meeting of the Worcester (Mass.) Protective Department last week Captain Williamson reported for the year ending June 1 192 fires and alarms. Of this number 13 occurred in June, 12 in July, 9 in August, 14 in September, 12 in October, II in November, 19 in December, 23 in January, 14 in February, 16 in March, 33 in April, 16 in May. The amount of insurance involved for the year ending June 1, 1890, was $445,553; total loss, $147,571.36. The loss sustained by the insurance companies was $82,401.53.

—The twenty-fourth New England Veteran Firemen’s Association has been organized at Natick, Mass., with Geo. E. Franklin, president, and John H. Coolidge, secretary.

—Can it be that the fire commissioners are holding off from appointing a chief engineer of the department on an economical standpoint ? Oris it from pure cussedness? .More likely the latter. It is a matter that should at once be decided.— Troy Observer.

—Walter H. Muchmore, fire and waler commissioner of Long Island City, N. Y., has been appointed temporary chief engineer of the fire department in place of Chief Sullivan, suspended.

—A correspondent of FIRE AND WATER writes that the wooden ware factory at Clarion, Mich., which was destroyed by fire on the 18th ult., was uninsured, while the loss was $30,000. Our correspondent remarks that had there been only a hand engine in the town the property would have been saved. Now perhaps Clarion may awake to the necessity of providing fire apparatus.

— Gas escaping from an oil tank at the Standard Oil Company’s works at Louisville, Ky., on Sunday became ignited and caused a fierce fire. A number of tanks exploded, and the flames spread over about five acres of the yards, etc. Seven persons were injured, several fatally, and about $40,000 worth of property was destroyed.

—The lynch law practiced in Chinese villages is very severe upon incendiaries. Recently a man was caught running away from a burning building, near Nigpo. and in the minds of the villagers there seemed no doubt that they had caught an incendiary red-handed. His appeals for justice or mercy met with no response; they tied him hand and foot with straw ropes, poured lamp oil on the poor wretch, and hurled him into the burning mass, where death after some minutes put an end to his terrible sufferings.

—Firebugs have been operating in Cumberland County, Pa.

—Two new two-thousand-gallon Clapp & Jones engines were expected in Boston yesterday.

—If councils desire to keep informed on all matters pertaining to fire, water and municipal matters after the most advanced and perfected methods it should subscribe for FIRE AND WATER, two copies, one for common and the other for select councils. The knowledge contained in it would be of incalculable value to our city fathers and might aid them out of many dilemmas. It is published at No. 14 Cortlandt street, New York.— Altoona Graphic News.

—Leaves in the Newark (N. J.) Fire Department were stopped on Tuesday last and will not be resumed until Monday

—The Esek Bussey Fire Company of Troy, N. Y.. has been officially re-organized as a part of the city fire department. E. S. Chapin is captain of the company and Esek Bussey, president.

—“ When a flour mill gets on fire,” says John Lindsay, chief of the St. Louis Fire Deppartment, in a Globe-Democrat interview, “the department is satisfied to save the adjacent property. There is nothing outside of a powder mill or paint shop that is as combustible as a flour mill. I have heard a great deal about the explosive nature of flour dust, but I know nothing on the subject. My own idea of the reasons why a flour mill burns like a bonfire is that it is built of wood in the first place, and that every part is connected by conveyers, flues, elevators, etc. Start a fire in any portion of a mill and within five minutes the whole structure is in flames. The department never did save but one mill. In that case the fire commenced on an upper floor, and we kept it there.”

—Seventy houses have been destroyed by fire in Oldenburg. Germany.

—At Louisville, Ky., the contracts for building the new No. 2 and No. 4 engine-houses have been awarded, and work upon them will begin at once.

—A fire engine-house is to be built at Mount Joy, Lancaster county, Pa.

—The steamer Paoching, Captain Place, which left Shanghai, China, for Hankow, was burned near the Forked Tree on Tangtze River, May 28, and Captain Place, Second Engineer Wilson and some twenty natives were missing and supposed to have perished.

—The board of public works of Kansas City, Mo., has been making a thorough examination of the different fire stations with a view to providing more adequate protection from fire as urged by Chief Hale.

—The fire department committee at La Fayette, Ind., recommends that the chemical engine (not now in use) and the hook and ladder truck be put in service in the business sec-

—At Bangor, Me., Harry McLaughlin offers a reward of $250 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons who set the fire in the oil tanks at High Head, June 11.

—The Volunteer Firemen’s Association of New York will take, on its visit to the Watertown convention, the double deck engine Volunteer. One hundred and eighty members will attend.

—Says The New York Sunday Mercury: “ The fire commissioners arc very much exercised at present over subway matters. They do not like the style in which they are being dictated to by the Consolidated Telegraph and Electrical Subway Company, which corporation has taken upon itself to decide just how much of the subway is needed for fire purposes, and has assigned to the fire department one duct in the subway. The fire commissioners are making a vigorous protest on account of the same duct also having been assigned to the police department. In other words, both the fire and police department have to use the same duct, which will hamper both depart-

— It has been over three years since Foreman McLaughlin of the New York fire department has had any of his men up on trial.

— It has not yet been decided by the New York fire commissioners to whom to award the Bennett and Stephenson medals this year.

—The New York fire commissioners have received a communication from Dr. Truman Nichols, of No. 207 East Broadway, thanking the officers and members of engine company No. 15 for the neat and swift manner in which they extinguished a fire in his house on the 20th ult.

—The new rules for the New York fire department have gone into effect.

—At a meeting of the Brooklyn Board of Estimate held on Wednesday, June 25, the county budget for next year was considered at some length. The Board told Justice Courtney, who was present in behalf of the volunteer firemen’s fund, that they would take into consideration a proposition to insert $10,000 in the budget for the fund. A recently enacted law allows the city to give to the fund $10,000, of which fifty per cent goes to the Western District Exempts, forty per cent to Eastern District Exempts, and ten per cent to the Exempts of New Lots.

—At the last meeting of the Volunteer and Exempt Firemen’s Association of the Eastern District of Brooklyn, the following officers were elected for the term of six months : President, C. C. Macray; vice-president, Edward Murray; rec. secretary, Louis Clausen; fin. secretary, Harry Van Horn; treasurer, John Kahler; sergeant at-arms, John Clausen.

—A fire company has been organized in the lower section of Amityville, L. I. It is proposed to purchase a hook and ladder truck. This will make the second fire company in that place

—The Meriden (Conn.) Journal says: “ The big bell that is depended upon in Meriden to call out the fire department is a delusion and a snare. Even in the stillness of night it cannot be heard half the time, while in the day season, as was shown on two occasions last week, firemen on Colony street near the post-office did not hear a stroke of the noon alarm. Is it fair, under such circumstances, to fine the men for failing to attend the fire? What is wanted is either a new alarm bell or a new alarm system.”

—A $200,000 fire is reported from Port Louis, Guadaloupe. The principal buildings in the place were destroyed.

—A dispatch from Portland, Ore., dated July 1, says: “ News has just reached here that a disastrous fire is raging in Seattle and the Tacoma fire department had been called upon for aid. The fire is in the business portion of the city, and i* is stated that at least a dozen buildings have already burned, but that hopes are entertained of checking the flames.”

—The Homemaker for July appears as a regular Independence Day number, the special features being a story, “ Honor and the Fourth,” by Harriet Prescott Spofford, and a pleasantly written historical sketch of “ Martha, the Wife of Washington,” by James Power Smith, D.D. Other contributions to this number are Frank Dempster Sherman, J. Milner Fothergill, M.D., Henry Tyrrell, Hester M. Poole. The illustrations, as usual, are excellent. It is published by the Homemaker Company, 44 East Fourteenth street, New York.

—At Spring City, Pa., the other day the Silsby steam fire engine lifted water twenty-seven feet seven inches vertically, and threw a fine fire stream.

—The June fire loss in the United States and Canada will, the Commercial Bulletin estimates, not exceed $5,500,000, about $2,000,000 less than in June, 1889. It puts the loss for the first half of 1890 at $48,000,000, against $64,286,000 for the same period in 1889, $67,280,850 in 1888, and $62,921,600 in 1887.

—A hose company will be organized at Newcastle, Col.

—Our correspondent at Wilmington, Del., writes us that the department is in excellent shape and the work it has accomplished during the past yeat shows the fine discipline that prevails among its members. There was an election of officers recently, when the following were elected for two years from June 1 : Chief engineer, Edward A. Robinson; first assistant engineer, James F. Kane, and second assistant engineer, William T. Green. The fire record for the month of June was very small. There were six alarms, and the damage from fire will not exceed $1000. This is a highly creditable showing, upon which FIRE AND WATER congratulates the department. The new officers arc all competent men and very popular in the service.

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FIRE DEPARTMENTS NEWS

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FIRE DEPARTMENTS NEWS

—Gardner, Mass., has contracted for the establishment of the Gamewell Fire Alarm Telegraph System.

—At latest accounts the Troy (N. Y.) Fire Commissioners were still squabbling over the election of a successor to the late Chief Lane.

—The public schools of Toronto are to be equipped with fifty chemical fire extinguishers.

—Plainwell Hook and Ladder Company has been organized at Plainwell, Mich., with L. Reese as foreman and Leon Jones secretary.

—Webb city, Mo., has organized a fire department consisting of two hose companies and a hook and ladder company.

—Half a dozen or more delinquent New York firemen faced the commissioners last week and were notified of various deductions which would be made from their month’s salaries.

—From the first of this month the members of the Newark (N. J.) Fire Department will be allowed twenty-four hours’ leave once in every ten days.

—The name of Albert Jenkins is to be placed on the roll of honor of the New York Fire Department for his bravery and attentiveness to business in arousing the inmates on his night off from duty at the tenement house fire, No. 374 Cherry street. He helped a number of people down the fire escape.

—A fiendish attempt to fire a tenement house in East Eighty-eighth street. New York, early last Saturday morning was discovered by a wakeful lodger and nipped in the bud. Careful preparations had been made to burn the house, in which ten families were sleeping at the time.

—There are a number of firemen who have been on the sick list of the New York Fire Department tor some months, and during that time have been drawing full pay. Many of them will never recover sufficiently to again perform active duty, consequently they will be placed on the retired list at half pay. They will not be relieved from duty entirely, but will have to do light work, such as messenger duty and watching engine houses.

—The advisability of reorganizing the present volunteer fire department as a paid force is being discussed at Butte City, Mont.

—The losses by fire in the United Statds last week are estimated at $1,905,000. The average loss per day since January I has been $224,061.

—The two-circuit fire alarm telegraph system at Brookline, Mass., is to be changed to a six-circuit one.

—Edward Atkinson is doing his best to make the Boston city authorities put fire escapes on the school houses, and threatens to carry the matter before the grand jury.

—The fire department at Gainesville, Tex., was called upon to do novel duty one night last week. A cloud burst over the city inundating the low lands along the creek and threatening a number of families with drowning. The fire alarm bells were, however, sounded; the department turned out and the unfortunates who had been overtaken by the flood were removed to places of safety.

—Work on the five new fire engine houses at Seattle, Wash., is being rapidly pushed and they should all be ready for occupancy within a short time.

—Several unsuccessful attempts were made the other night by James Beagle, a special policeman, at the Globe Variety Theatre at Washington, D. C., to set fire to the building. He then wounded one of the proprietors with a pistol shot. He is thought to be insane.

—Rewards aggregating $300 are offered for the apprehension and conviction ot whoever set fire to John Reilly’s house on Park street, Clinton. Mass., the 13th ult.

—Three slight incendiary fires occurred on one day recently at Portland, Me.

—Says The Providence (R. I.) Journal: “Six alarms of fire which were given Sunday afternoon and Sunday evening demonstrated the urgent need of the establishment of another protective company.”

—The town authorities of Worsted, Conn., have offered $200 for the capture of the man who started the recent incendiary fire.

—The fire board of Baltimore met April 26 in conjunction with the council committee on harbor and the Mayor, forming a board authorized by ordinance to build or buy a fire boat at a cost of not over $35,000. Mr. Daiger, councilman for the First ward, urged the building of a boat in Baltimore, and he was granted the privilege of submitting plans, which he had drawn up for a fire-boat, on May 2.

—It is thought that a gang of mischievous boys have been the authors of the numerous small stable fires which have occurred of late at Atlanta, and have so worried the underwriters. Most of the fires, which have started in hay or straw, have been put out with little damage, but as the buildings have been situated in the centre of large blocks the constant recurrence of the mysterious outbreaks has caused considerable uneasiness.

—The Eureka Hose Company will furnish Nazareth, Pa., with 1000 feet of hose. The old hose which this will replace had seen over fifty yaars of service and, as a local paper naively remarks, “when it was recently tested was found to be useless.”

—The new Ahrcn’s steam fire engine “J. M. Bishop,” recently delivered to the fire department of Quincy, Ill., was given an exhaustive trial of Friday on last week. In four minutes from time of starting the fire a stream was thrown 100 feet and a few minutes later the water touched the ground 282 feet 7 inches from the nozzle. The capacity of the machine is 850 gallons a minute. Chief Estcrly and the board of fire engineers were well satisfied with the results of the test and promptly accepted the engine.

—Fifteen buildings were burned and seven families rendered homeless by a fire in De Kuyter, Madison county, N. V., Wednesday night. The loss is estimated at $50,000.

—A Jacksonville (Fla.) dispatch of Tuesday reports the burning of the passenger steamer H. B. Plant in Lake Berresford on the St. John’s river, with the loss of four lives. The rest of the passengers escaped to shore in the life-boat. The watchman had tried the old trick of filling with oil a lighted lamp.

—At the burning of the Unicorn Silk Manufacturing Company’s Works at Catasauqua, Pa., April 24, a wall fell upon a number of persons, killing five and injuring sixteen others.

The property loss was over $200,000. The firemen, who are volunteers and mostly employed in factories, delayed in responding to the alarm, mistaking the alarm whistles for the morning’s call to work. The two steamers of the department had also been neglected, were out of order and would not work properly.

—The Ahrens Manufacturing Company of Cincinnati, O., has closed the following contracts within the past two weeks: Milwaukee, Wis., one engine: Elwood, Ind., one engine, hose cart and 500 feet hose; Detroit, Mich., one engine; and Springfield, Ill., one engine. The company has just delivered two engines to Columbus, and one to Quincy, Ill.

—Wandowcnock Fire Hook and Ladder Company No. 1 of Newton, Long Island, held a fair last week with the object of raising funds for the purchase of a steam fire engine. One feature of the entertainment was the publication each evening of a handsomely printed little sheet called The firebrand, which, during its worthy, if short life, was edited by Chief Engineer Oliver H. Perry of the Newtown Fire Department.

—Oren Scotten, a well known and successful business man of Detroit, has been appointed one of the fire commissioners of that city, in place of William Stapleton whose term expired April 1.

—The fire commissioners of Detroit have purchased another first-class Ahrens steamer.

—G. J. Klein, who has been identified with the fire department of Allentown, Pa , for the past eighteen years, has been appointed chief engineer of the department. He visited New York this week and found time to drop in at the office of FIRE AND WATER.

—At the fire department convention at Selma, Ala., John G. Norris was nominated as chief engineer.

—A fire department is being organized at Massena, N. Y. G. A. Smith is chief. It is proposed to have two engines and one truck company,

—At Tonawanda, N. Y., on the night of April 22, after two lumber yard fires had been put out with great difficulty, it was found that the fire alarm wires had been cut in several places. It is believed that plans had been laid to burn the place.

—Bethlehem, Pa., is to have an electric fire alarm system.

—The New Albany (Ind.) Fire Department will be furnished with 2000 feet of hose by the Fabric Fire Hose Company of New York.

—The Mountain City (Ga.) Fire Company No. 2, has elected W. G. Waitland captain and H. W. Edmundson, secretary.

—There arc rumors that important changes are to be made in the fire department of Bridgeport, Conn. There has, it is said, been trouble in the department for sometime. Recently the terms of two of the commissioners expired and they were not reappointed.

— The Canton (O.) Fire Department is to have three new hose houses to be finished October 1.

—Martinsville, Ind., needs fire protection.

—Montreal, Canada, has purchased 6000 feet of hose, as follows: 4000 feet of Paragon, 1000 feet of Rob Roy, 500 feet Baker’s fabric and 500 feet of Keystone.

—The annual election for officers of the Flatbush (L. I.) Fire Department will be held next month.

—The Hurontown (Mich.) fire company has elected officers as follows: President, C. A. Maywann; vice-president, M. Michaels; secretary, M. J. Finnegan; foreman, Geo. Nancanow.

—The new fire department building at Hancock, W. Va., is being rapidly constructed. It is 38 x 44 and two stories high. When completed it will be the home of the hook and ladder truck and one of the hose companies.

—Lack of water caused the destruction of eight buildings at Shelton. Conn., April 24. When a supply was finally secured the fire department got the fire under control. The money loss was $50,000, and one woman lost her life. A call was sent to Ansonia for aid and an electric car brought two hose carts and fifty men a distance of two miles in thirteen minutes. One of the buildings destroyed was an old landmark, which was known as the “La Fayette House,” because the famous Frenchman stopped in in it for several hours on one of his trips to this country. It was nearly 200 years old.

—The Charlestown (Mass.) Veteran Firemen’s Association has issued invitations to the proposed great firemen’s muster on Juue 17. Four hundred and fifty dollars in prizes are offered for the hand engine contests. Bernard McNellis, secretary, 12 Sackville street, Charlestown, Mass., will give further information.

— A La France steam fire engine has been ordered for the fire department of Providence, R. I.

—Geo. Cushing has been re-elected chief engineer of the fire department of Gingham, Mass.

—A. L. Mitchell has been re-elected chief of the Hull (Mass.) Fire Department.

—C. A. Hemmingway succeeds W. H. Burke, resigned, as chief of the Framingham (Mass.) Fire Department.

—The wheels of the new engines recently put in service at Portland, Me., are pronounced by the fire department as too light for the local service, and will be exchanged for heavier ones at an early date.

—“What has become of Mt. Holly’s fire department?” asks The Sentinel of Carlisle, Pa. “We still hear some talk of it. We hope they will make a move one way or the other.”

—The numerous destructive forest fires in Burlington county. New Jersey, are laid to the score of timber thieves, a number of whom were recently criminally prosecuted by the owners of valuable timber tracks which they had been robbing.

—Yoakum Hook and Ladder Company No. 1 of Yoakum, Tex., has been organized with Joseph Levy as president, H. B. Edgar, secretary, and J. H. Griddle, foreman.

—The newly formed fire company at Laredo, Tex., has elected officers as follows: A. L. McLane, president; Chas.

C. Pierce, vice-president; Hayes Dix, secretary; G. E. Harris, financial secretary; Thos. Bryan, treasurer; Eugene Christian, chief.

—Says The Schuylerville (N. Y.) Standard: “In our appreciation of the great service which the fire steamer has been to the corporation, we should not overlook another most important factor—the reservoirs and water-works system of D. A Bullard & Sons. At five fires within the last half year, the village and the propertyowners have been indebted to this firm and its excellent system for material aid in saving prop erty. This fact should have due recognition and appreciation.”

—At Fort Madison, Ia., the several hose carts now carry first-class hose, in prime condition, as follows: First, Second and Third wards 800 feet each, Fourth ward 1000 feet. In addition to this each ward has a lot in fair condition to be used in case of necessity.

—The Anniston (Ala.) Hot Blast calls renewed attention to the fact that the West Anniston Hose Company is still without a shelter to protect its reel and hose from the weather, and asks mildly, “Would it not be economy on the part of the council to provide it?”

—There is a shifting engine on the Monongahela connecting railroad that passes over the tracks at South Twenty-ninth street, Pittsburgh, several times a day, and when it is hauling a heavy train it is said that it throws sparks in every direction. Four fires of very recent dates have all been traced directly to this cause, and the firemen expect to see a conflagration among the frame buildings of that part of the city if a spark-arrester is not put in use.

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