NEW YORK FIRE GOSSIP.

Blizzards and such like trifles are not much regarded in themselves by the firemen of this city. But. when they find it impossible to “get there” on being summoned to a fire, then, in the words of the old Scottish chopper of logic. “The case being altered, alters the case.” That happened in one case in Brooklyn, when both engines got stalled in the snow drifts, and one never reached the scene of the fire at all; the other arriving after over an hour’s hard hauling, with frequent stallings, only in time to find ruins. Pieces of apparatus on runners, such as are found in Monti eal and other cities, would remedy such a condition of affairs. The department was badly handicapped in the same way on Tuesday in essaying to reach the fire which destroyed the big car house of the Union Railway Company at One Hundred and Seventy-third street and Boston road,borough of the Bronx. The building, which was of brick and two stories high, was 150 by 250 feet, built with iron girders and posts, and supposed to be almost fireproof. It burned like tinder, all the same. The fire engines summoned were constantly kept back by snow drifts four and five feet deep ; a truck was stalled in such a snow drift, whose obstructiveness was added to by a sewer excavation, and never reached the fire at all. T he water pressure was inadequate, and the hydrants were of the small oldfashioned type. Surrounding the car shed were frame structures, and on the second story of the house itself were sixty open summer cars and fifteen closed new cars that had never been used, all providing food for the flames. On the second story were also the paint shop and the general repair shops of the electric motors. On the ground were forty carson the tracks; but these were taken away when the fire broke out. The fire started in the armature repair room in the northeast corner of the second story at about 11 .’30 a. m., and the flames rapidly spread to the paint shop and supply room, containing oil and other inflammable materials. Three alarms were turned in and the power turned off at the {rower house, a quarter of a mile away, so that the firemen might work in safety among the trolley wires. The frame sheds round about soon caught fire, and all Chief Short could do was to try to confine the fire exclusively to the carhouse and save the adjoining property. In this he was successful, though the intense heat of the fire melted the snow for many hundred yards about the carhouse, and the firemen were obliged to wade in slush in places almost to their waist. The damage will exceed $100,000. The insurance amounts to that figure. The lines of cars stopped are the Fordham, West Farms, 1‘ort Morris, Westchester avenue, Southern Boulevard, 161st street, Westchester,Mount Vernon, High Bridge, Willis avenue lines.—In the borough of Manhattan there were no bad fires up to Thursday morning; but the department was sadly handicapped in getting out to small ones—thanks to the utter breakdown in the arrangements of the street cleaning department, the lack of foresight exhibited by its head, and the slowness in meeting the emergency, even when certain remedial measures could have been taken. 1 he firemen, like other people, sadly missed Col. V aring and his energetic corps of officers and men. hire Commissioner Scanned did what he could by providing extra horses; but even then, in more cases than one, notably in Bark avenue, irritating delays were constantly occurring. T hat important thoroughfare, for quite forty-eight hours, was practically a stone wall obstruction to the department, hire companies on either side of it were compelled to go round by way of horty second street on the south or Fifty-ninth street on the north in responding to alarms. Hook and ladder company No. 2,located at Fiftieth stieet and Lexington avenue, fared particularly badly.—On Thursday morning the expected bad fire broke out in the eight-story building at the southwest corner of V* ooster and West Third streets. The flames were first seen by a letter carrier,and last of all,by a policeman. They were breaking out from the second story window and had been visible for ten minutes before the letter earlier turned in an alarm. The po* licrman.it appears, had denied the possibility of there being a tire on his post and was arguing the point, when the letter carrier turned in the alarm. Owing to the terrible condition of the streets, the fire apparatus was delayed, the horses and heavy engines, water tower, and trucks slipping and sliding about. Some were stuck for some seconds, even minutes in the snow drifts, and the much needed water tower was very tong in arriving—through no fault of the department, only of Commissioner McCartney, whom Providence had not favored by sending rain or warm weather. It was fifteen minutes before a stream was thrown on the fire and the building was simply gutted. Alt that could be done was to save the surrounding property in one of the chief business centres in the city. Several firemen were cut by falling glass, and a bunch of firemen holding the nozzle were thrown down by the back draught, but were unhurt. A violent explosion from the West ‘Third street side shook the whole building, and nearly threw down the laddeis with the firemen on them. They swayed to and fro, but kept their place. The loss is conservatively set at $175,000. The first floor was occupied by the New York Dispatch and Delivery Company; the second, where the fire started, and others to the top by various clothing firms. When the roof fell, it carried with^it.part^of^the wall on the Third street side, and the whole building after the fire, seemed tattering and dangerous. The fire marshal is suspicious as to the origin of the fire, and will investigate.—On the same morning, Capt. Aiken, of engine company No. 55, Lieutenant William Wieland, of truck No. 8, and Deptuty Chief Tally were overcome by gas from a new meter which had exploded, causing a fire in the cellar of 39 41 Greene street. Chief Reilly was rescued by his men,and soon recovered consciousness. It was feared Wieland would die. Supt Reilly, of the Consolidated Gas Company, sixty-five years old, was partially overcome by the escaping gas when trying to turn it off. All will now recover.—Captain Joseph Martin, of engine company No. 39, and Fireman Henry Volk, of engine company No. 55, two of the firemen of Manhattan borough, were very severely, possibly permanently Injured last Saturday morning, at a fire at 87 Walker street, by falling through three floors to the cellar of the building. The fire was in the rear of Walter & Co-’s paper factory, and soon the firemen found that the flames had entered through the floorings of the second and third floors. It took an hour to extinguish the fire. All the rear of three floors of the building was badly damaged, and $10,000 damage was done to stock and building. The firemen said that the building must have been burning all night, and that possibly a stove had caused the flames. When Volk fell, he was still clutching the hose. CaptMartin went through the hole; and was buried under the debris. The firemen were looking for him, when they saw a hand holding a lantern, and dug in and got him out. His back was hurt, and his right arm dislocated. Volk had broken his left arm, and sustained severe injuries. The police took both men to the Hudson street hospital.