FIRE NEWS FROM ALL PARTS

The total fire loss in the United States in November, reckoned on the $10,000 basis, was $12,815,000, which, when compared with that of the corresponding month of 1908 shows a decrease of $463,000, and with that of November, 1907, a decrease of $3,706,000. The total fire loss for 11 months was $154,911,000 against $ 177,869,000 for 11 months of the year 1908, and $165,722,000 for 11 months of the year 1907.

The Hornell, N. Y., board of public safety reports that the fire department responded to 60 alarms during the year 1909. A total of 25,650 feet of hose was laid at the fires during the year. The greatest amount of hose used at any one fire was 4,000 feet. Five hundred and sixty gallons of chemicals were used. There were only seven fires where the loss was very large. The fire that destroyed the Preston brick plant was the most serious, involving an insurance loss of $17,200 and a property loss of about 25 per cent. more.

The fire committee of Montclair, N. J., recommends the establishment of a paid department. There are now ten firemen who are paid $85 a month; a chief, $75 a month; two assistants, $10 a month; a clerk at $40 a month, and 75 volunteers at $12 a year. The committee recommends that the volunteers be done away with and that six additional men be employed at $65 a month each and 42 call men at $100 a year. The present payroll of the department is $13,552, and under the new regime it would be $20,700. The council is reported as favorable.

While the royal family was gathered about a Christmas tree, in the palace at Tatoi, near Athens, Greece, the decorations on the tree took fire, and in spite of efforts on the part of the attendants, the flames rapidly spread, involving the entire right wing of the building. The local firemen were assisted by sailors and marines from British and Russian war ships in the harbor, who rendered valuable service in saving works of art and relics from the royal apartments. The fire was finally extinguished after the greater part of the right wing of the building had been destroyed.

December, 1909. is set down on Chief Wagner’s books as the banner fire month in the history of the Washington, D. C., fire department. Early in 1909 the number of fires began to increase as compared with those of 1908 January. 1909, started off with fifty-three alarms to its credit. In February the percentage fell off. but with the exception of June, when the calls fell to twenty-nine, the percentage kept increasing. The record is as follows. January, 53; February, 38; March. 49: April. 45: May. 49; June, 39; July, 40; August, 44; September, 45; October, 53: November, 61, and December, including 25th. 68.

Chief Garverich estimates that the Harrisburg, Pa., tire department will need between $40,000 and $50,000 during 1910. In order to prove that Harrisburg is below other cities in expenses Chief Garverich makes the following comparison between Harrisburg and Erie: Harrisburg (volunteer department)—Thirteen companies; cost of maintenance. $32,647.09: 150 calls during the year: total loss, $32,861.12. Erie (paid department)—Thirteen companies: cost of maintenance, $97,044.13; 311 calls; total loss, $473,655. The expenses include a $15,000 house, $61,000 for salaries and $4,900 for fire alarm.

The year 1909 broke all records for the number of fires in Jacksonville. Fla., there having been 331 alarms answered by the department during the year just closed. The previous record was in 1906, when a total of 307 alarms were answered. It is estimated that the total fire loss is $300,000. During the year there was one $125,000 fire loss and another of $85,000. At the opening of the year 1910 the fire department is reported to be better equipped than ever before, but needs more men. Several new men were added last year. Chief Many’s auto has been ordered and should reach Jacksonville within a short time.

J. W. Dinecn, of Albany, Ill., has been appointed state lire marshal of Illinois, under the new law which went into effect on January 1. The state fire marshal with his deputies and the fire chiefs of cities are required to investigate every fire and keep written reports in the office of the state marshal at Springfield. The fire marshal is given authority upon complaint to enter upon any premises for purposes of inspection, and may require removal of buildings or parts of buildings or explosive or inflammable contents if he finds the safety of surrounding property demands it, the owner of the condemned property being given 10 days in which to appeal to the state marshal himself.

After a blaze in a tenement in Brownsville, Brooklyn’s Hebrew settlement, which was providentially discovered in time to enable the occupants, about 60 in number, to escape, half-clad, into the freezing night air, an investigation by the fire marshal disclosed the fact that it had probably been started by sprinkling benzine near the airshaft in the cellar and applying a match. The landlord, who lived on the premises, was insured and places the damage to his building at $10,000; the aggregate loss was estimated at $15,000, much of it uninsured. Three alarms called all the available apparatus from a considerable section of Brooklyn to the outlying section, where the fire occurred.

Chief Horan, of Chicago, reports that in the year preceding December 24. the fire department responded to 10,000 alarms. The number of actual fires was 7,062, the value of property involved $135,044,406, the loss on which was $3,178,492. This is a decrease of $694,952 from the fire loss of 1908. The total insurance approximated $91,813,335. Chief Horan also calls attention to improvement in the personnal of the department by the retirement of a number of men who were incapacitated by age or physical disability and replaced by younger and more vigorous men. He recommends three combined chemical engines and hose wagons in each division of the city and 18 motor buggies to take the place of the present horse-drawn vehicles used by the batalion chiefs.

The one-story steel and frame factory building of YVonham, Magor & Company located at Athens, N. J., outside the city limits of Passaic, was found to be on fire by an employe, a short time ago, just after men had quit work. An alarm was turned in, to which a third-size Clapp Jones fire engine responded. About one half the building was in flames when it arrived. There was no other fire or water service than a small tank available on the spot, but by laying 1,500 feet of hose the firemen managed to get one stream from a 1 1/8-inch nozzle, on the flames. That the plant, under these circumstances, was completely destroyed, is not surprising, the loss on buildings and contents, mainly heavy machinery for building steel freight and coal cars, being about $100,000.

While Chief Engineer F. O. Whitmarsh, of the Braintree. Mass., fire department, was on his way to respond to an alarm of fire, the buggy in which he was riding collided with a coal wagon in making a sharp turn and the chief was thrown out. Picked up unconscious, he was hurried to his home where it was found that he had a concussion of the brain, legs cut and bruised and a badly dislocated shoulder, the latter, on account of the torn and strained ligaments, being the most serious injury. At last accounts he was resting comfortably but is likely to be confined to his home for some time. Chief Whitmarsh will be well remembered by his colleagues as the genial sergeant-at-arms of the Massachusetts Fire Chiefs’ Club, an office he has held for several years.

That Holyoke. Mass., has a most efficient fire department is proved by its record for the past ten years. During this period the buildings in which fires occurred were valued at $59,969,631.25. The value of the property damaged by fire was $499,356.40. The total amount of insurance paid on the damaged property

was $469,048.30, and the total net loss, above the insurance paid, to the citizens of Holyoke for this period of 10 years was $30,308.08, which, averaging the city’s population at 50,000, made a gross loss for each inhabitant per year of less than $1, and a net loss of 6 cents, or a trifle over 60 cents for the period of 10 years. For the year 1908 Holoyke had one of the lowest per-capita fire losses of any city in the entire country, and the lowest of any manufacturing community.

At a recent fire in YVest Springfield, Mass., finding the water pressure inadequate, Fire Chief E. B. Jones called upon Springfield for assistance in the shape of a steam fire engine. For this he was taken to task by the water department officials who claim that in a few minutes he could have had a pressure of 80 pounds, sufficient to throw a stream over any structure in YVest Springfield, if he had telephoned to the Bear Hole station. Chief Jones retorts that past experience does not warrant dependence on increased pressure from Bear Hole, that the man in charge could not act without instructions from the commissioners and that time was too precious, when he had a fire on his hands, to wait for the unravelling of so much red-tape. All of which controversy, it might be suggested, would be obviated, if West Springfield had a fire engine of its own.

Chief Griffith, of the Covington, Ky., fire department, reports that the department responded to 200 alarms during the year, 262 of which were bell, 198 still and two false alarms. The total fire loss was $142,037, of which $57,025 was on building and $85,011 on contents. The value of the buildings and their contents where these fires occurred was $1,748,685, and they were insured for $852,858. The chief inspected 162 buildings and ordered fife escapes placed in a number of them; 12 owners have complied with this order and five more are having fire escapes constructed, while eight buildings have been put in a safe condition. The expenses for the year were $42,236.50 for salaries and $11,778.20 for maintenance. A report compiled by the government shows that in 130 cities the cost of protection from fire averages $1.65 per capita, while the Covington department has managed to do this for about 85 cents. Upon recommendation of Chief Griffith and the mayor the commissioners request an appropriation of $110,260 for the fire department for 1910. This appropriation is for the building of a fire house in Latonia and one in Lewisburg, the installation of 40 new fire alarm boxes, 15 cisterns, the equipment of the other two engines, which are now lying idle, a 75foot aerial auto truck, a new auto chemical engine, salaries of the men, etc. The cost of maintaining the department last year was $47,000.

The total fire loss for South Bend, Ind., in 1909 is about $10,000 higher than the loss for 1908, according to Chief YVilfred Grant’s annual report. Had it not been for two distant fires the loss would have been lower than usual. Five hundred and sixty-three runs were made in answering 180 alarms. The estimated value ot buildings at risk is placed at $387,735, and of the contents $294,591. The estimated loss on buildings is placed at $16,375.42, and on the contents $25.661. More than 75,000 feet of hose were laid and 3,274 feet of ladders were raised, 1.388 gallons of chemical were used and 804 miles traveled by the companies. The 60 firemen are part paid with a total of $62,345.51 in salaries for the year and $9,997.63 has been expended for incidental expenses, making the total expense of the department $72,343.14. The cost of maintaining the department for 1908 was $70,112.67, of which $58,807.35 was for salaries and $11,298.32 for miscellaneous expenses. The equipment of the department is reported to be one of the best in the state. There are in service at the present time one chemical engine, nine hose wagons, two hook and lader trucks, one chief’s and one assistant chief’s buggy, and two hose wagons in reserve. There are 29 horses in the department, and every piece of apparatus is in good condition. Chief Grant strongly urges the purchase of an automobile chemical engine, equipped with two 60-gallon tanks and two sets of 1-inch hose so that two leads can be worked at one fire.