The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-31 00:00:00

THE LONDON FIRE BRIGADE.

One of the greatest improvements which the
Metropolitan Board of Works have ever effected,
not even excepting their Main Drainage and Thames
Embankment schemes, has been the consolidation
and reorganisation, under Captain Shaw, of the
whole system of the Fire Brigade into one homo-
geneous municipal institution. Something has still
to be done in increasing the strength of the force,
and more in providing it with such facilities for
work as consist in the erection of properly built and
commodious fire-stations. These, however, are only
questions of comparatively minor importance, as to
which, especially in the matter of the fire-stations,
improvements are being effected every month. In
all that relates to system and perfect organisation
the present Fire Brigade is complete. It is the model
of all other Fire Brigades throughout the kingdom,
and in comparison with the former Fire Brigade it
bears about the same relation as locomotives do
to stage coaches, or express trains to omnibuses.
Everything has been altered, everything remodelled,
everything improved, and now, for the first time
in the history of London, its Fire Brigade system
and its mechanical appliances, in the way of steam
and hand engines, are equal to coping with any
conflagration that may arise. It is not meant, of
course, by this that any fire which breaks out can
be extinguished. That, unfortunately, in many
cases would be physically impossible. But they
can be held in check, and almost to a certainty con-
fined to the buildings in which they originate. The
old Fire Brigade was never in a condition to effect
this result. It had neither the men nor the means.
The engines were old-fashioned—the staff was small.
It was by no means compulsory on them to attend
any fire in which the particular insurance offices
which owned the engines were not concerned, and
in some cases, if their efforts had not been supple-
mented by the exertions of many private engines,
they could have effected nothing at all. in short,
the old Fire Brigade, as a protection against one
of the most terrible calamities which can befall a
neighbourhood, was almost worthless ; and it was
only by the untiring energy and vigilance of Mr.
Braidwood that it was enabled to effect what it did.
Of course, an occasion at last came which disclosed
the insufficiency of the Brigade and ire means to
cope with a vast fire. It was the gat fire at
Tooley-street, where Mr. Braidwood lost his life,
where the engines were seen to be all but power-
less, and where, fortunately, the fire in a great
measure burnt out of itself. The tremendous loss
sustained on this occasion by the insurance compa-
nies, the inadequacy of the means of saving us from
the recurrence of such disasters, and the death of
Mr. Braidwood, with the necessity for appointing a
new chief, all led to a thorough reorganisation of
the Fire Brigade system. it was placed under the
control of the Board of Works. The insurance com-
panies now give £lO,OOO a year towards its main-
tenance, the Treasury £lO,OOO more, and a metro-
politan rate of a half-penny in the pound raises an
additional sum of £30,000, making £50,000 in all.
There can be no question that this sum will have to
be increased to complete the efficiency of the force,
and perhaps the best guarantee for the usefulness of
such an additional outlay is to be found in the
great results which have already been effected with
the sum now at the disposal of the Board, and in-
trusted by them to Captain Shaw. The difference
between the old Fire Brigade system and that of
Captain Shaw may be summed up thus : —Under
the old system there were
ing an area of about 10 square miles, out of the 700
which comprise the Metropolitan District. There
are now 43 stations in an area of about 110 square
miles, but so distributed as to guard an area of
more than 400 square miles. There were for-
merly only 36 fire-engines, either worked by
steam or hand—there are now 95, and the addi-
tions have all been of the most powerful engines
which can be made. There were only two floating
steam fire-engines, with not a very high rate of
steaming; there are now virtually four, and the two
new ones, which will be completed in a few weeks,
will be able to steam their 14 knots an hour and
et awcoh throwe
nndeoaurlsy
e2nlg
it
no
enss osfr
ew
saot e ra
rar
ameigne te d
These
t
theyn
a giganticcan either
column,
throwlunn, their
enough
to
o drown through a
oneiv
village,
o
can supply with an enormous waterpres-
surer they n
o less than 32 fire hose of the common size.
These engines may in fact be looked on as being in
themselves complete fire brigades, for each is equal
to 32 hand-worked engines of the ordinary capacity.
Thus, under Captain Shaw's new system, the num-
ber of engines has been trebled, the number of fire-
stations trebled, and the area they guard increased
forty-fold.
.1) e regretted, however, that the increase
thefinoritto
number of men has by no means kept pace
with the immense increase of their duties. Thus,
under
areon
ltyh e3104l d r_aen'g i methere
increase
were
of
only
9ms—ena, noninwertehaseree
which becomes very small when it is recollected that
87 men are every night occupied by the new duties
of attendance on fire-escapes ; that 43 men, that is
one man each, must always be left in charge of the
stations ; and that at least 5 per cent. of the force
is liable to be unfit for duty from injuries or cold, or
absent on leave ; so that, making these deductions,
little more than 160 men are left for day and night
duty over an area of nearly 110 square miles. It
frequently happens that nearly 25 per cent. of the
whole number of men employed are on duty 24
hours at a stretch—that is to say, that a man who
has charge of a fire-escape through the night, from
8 p.m. to 8 a.m., comes back and takes his turn of
duty on watch at a fire station from 8 a.m. to
8 p.m. again. If a railway accident were to occur
with loss of life and property, and it was proved at
the inquest that the pointsman or signalman was
subject to 24 hours' duty, the railway would most
assuredly be heavily find in the way of damages.
In the case of the Fire Brigade, where loss of life
and destruction of property occur, the public fine
themselves much more heavily, either through
companies or individuals, for what is in fact their
own remissness and false economy. There is no
profession—for such, in truth, may be said to be
the status to which Captain Shaw has raised the
Fire Brigade—the exercise of which requires more
unceasing vigilance, personal daring, coolness, and
bodily vigour. Yet it is not possible that a man
who at the end of 24 hours' duty may be sum-
moned to a fire can bring with him these essential
qualities, and the result is, and always must be,
greater loss than the saving effected by keeping the
establishment short-handed, At least a hundred
additional firemen are required to do fairly the
duties the present force is now expected to dis-
charge. The men could not be more efficient
than they are now, but their present efficiency is
purchased at a high price—that of the lives of
those who break down in the service from sheer
over-work. In Paris, which is not much more than
half the size of London, and where the houses are
all of stone, and therefore more or less fireproof,
there is an established Fire Brigade of 1,600 men.
In London, with twice the area to guard, and with
ten times the amount of commercial property to
watch over in docks and warehouses, there are about,
as we have said, 160 firemen available for great
emergencies—that is to say, men who have not been
on duty 12 hours before coming on the scene of
fire. Is it, then, to be wondered at that the disas-
trous fires which annually afflict London are almost
unknown in Continental cities ? At the same time
it must be distinctly understood that London, with
its present means, is better provided against fire
than any other city, and it only requires a small
extension of force to make it, so to speak, almost
fireproof.
For the purposes of the Metropolitan Fire Bri-
gade all London and its chief suburbs are divided
into four districts, known by the letters A, B, C,
and 1), which make four distinct groups, each
governed by one chief officer, or foreman of the
district. The A group includes all the west end of
the town, and has 14 stations in operation, two in
course of construction, and one not yet begun,
making 17 in all. The B district takes in all the
west central parts of London, from Islington and
Charing-cross to Watling-street, the head-quarters.
Here there are eight large stations in operation, and
four to be built-12 in all. In the Cor East dis-
trict there are 13 stations in operation and one to

be built ; and in the south or D district there are
eight stations in operation, with five now being
built and six not yet begun. These make a total
of 43 fire stations now ready for any call, five sta-
tions building, and 12 to be built; that is to say,
by the close of the present year there will be 60
fire-engine stations in the north and south of
London, instead of the 17 that were maintained
under the old Fire Brigade system. Each of
these four districts, as we have said, forms a dis-

tinct group by itself, each station in the group
being under the charge of an engineer, and each
central station in a group being under the charge of
a foreman of the district. All the sub-stations of

.ho groups are connected by telegraph with their
Foreman's station, and all the four foremen's sta-

tions are in the same way connected with Captain

Shaw's headquarters in Watling-street. Thus, the
first call or alarm of fire is transmitted through all

sub-stations to the foreman of the district, and by
the foreman to Captain Shaw at Watling-street,
where everything in the nature of fire and fire-
alarms—which latter, of course, are ten times more
numerous—is known almost as soon as it occurs.
. .

The foreman of the district takes it upon himself to
order whatever may be fitting to meet the imme-
diate necessity, but after that all pressing directions
are given through the telegraph by Captain Shaw
till he himself arrives upon the scene, and this is, as
a rule, within a few minutes after the first alarm
has been given. .In the fire at her Majesty's Thea-
tre, Captain Shaw and the portion of the brigade
under his immediate command were in the Hay-
market within eight minutes of the time the first
alarm was telegraphed to Watling-street.
At all principal fire stations, whether they are
those of groups or sub-stations, three engines are
always kept in readiness day and night—a steam
fire-engine, a large powerful engine worked by
hand, and a small engine drawn by hand, to be
pulled out and set to work at once in case of fire in
thy huLuctlialy vicialty ur the atatiuu. The btetuu
fire-engines are, of course, of great power, and
equal to three of the most powerful hand-worked
engines. They are about three times as expensive
to build, but last about three times as long, and, of
course, are not nearly so costly to work. A few
pounds of coal, in fact, triple the amount 3f ser-
vice done by the paid labour of 30 men. It used
to require from 12 to 15 minutes to get up steam in
the boilers of these engines, but by a very simple
arrangement this source of delay is quite obvi-
ated now. The fires are all ready laid in the

furnaces, though not lighted, but a gas jet from a
flexible tube is kept playing upon the boiler from
the firebox, and the water inside it is always
kept at such a point as to
give a pressure of a
few pounds of steam. After this, to get up full
power by lighting the furnaces is only a matter of
from two to three minutes, just the time allowed
for the engine to be horsed, manned, and ready to
start from the first instant of receiving the alarm.
Steam fire-engines are, of course, as much superior
to hand-worked engines as rifles are to the old
Brown Bess. Yet hand-worked engines can never be
altogether abandoned, and for these reasons : a
hand-worked engine with its firemen weighs about
a ton, and two horses can and often do travel with
it to fires at the rate of 12 or 14 miles an hour ;
a land steam-engine, without its firemen, weighs
over three tons, and neither two, nor three, nor
four horses can drag this load at any great pace
for long. The hand-worked engines,
therefore, are
instantly despatched as the avant-courriers of
those worked by steam, for the use of which in
the early outbreaks of fire there is rarely a
sufficient supply of water. In the matter of sta-
tions the Fire Brigade is at present but ill-
supplied, men, horses, and, in some cases, even
engines, having to be distributed up and down dif-
ferent parts of the same street, an arrangement
which must of necessity cause extra delay in bring-
ing them all together at the first alarm. This evil,
however, is not just now of great weight, for as fast
as proper sites can be obtained well-built barrack
fire-stations, with rooms for the men, stabling for
the horses, and houses for the enginess, are being
erected. Some of these new stations, such as those at
Westminster, Camberwell, and Peckham, are really
model buildings. Others, as in the city, where
private houses have been adapted, are far from
offering such facilities as the force ought properly
to have.
The whole personnel of the Fire Brigade is divided
into seven classes. First come the foremen of dis-
tricts, who receive 10s. a day, with lodging, light,
fire, and uniform. Next come the engineers, who
in charge of sub-stations get Gs. a day, and, like
get ss. a day, the firemen of the
all the rest, whether high or low in rank, have
of the second class 45., of the
the same perquisites as to lodging, lights, fire,
and clothes. The sub-engineers in charge of the
injured, whether by accident or
sfittlrieisratdmnclfilaarssses- fire-engines
and the fourth or probationary
on duty receive full pay till fit
12 hours'
able duty
svecianrmyt into
n 2,
to return to it. These conditions are in the
disease, while
wAhlillemen
time if good
but at the same pay is given a great
present state of the labour-market
deal is expected in return. The fireman's regular
4,a liberal,nodr
duty must be 12 hours a day, and any emergency
of fire may make that
choice, the risks to which they
even more. Strange as it may seem, all the fire-
menf rsnernivedynuinng,men of war. The
subjects to be disposed
reasons nearly
all
l Ifeohr chosen from
are exposed, the fires to which they are called, and
tnhgethcylos e 0 f
the causes of those fires are all, however, much too
a sufficiently low).
article. In another we shall endeavour to explain
interesting
0f
i n
a few
how the men are drilled, and of what kind are
the fires which they attend and how they attend
them. and
wordstoo
aat e

NAVAL AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE.

The proceedings and finding of the general court-
martial which assembled at Chatham garrison on 1
the 23d ult., under the presidency of Colonel R.
80y1e,C.8., for the trial of Patrick Daley and James
Molloy, two privates in the 2d Battalion of the Ist
R
the charge of having made use of
Fail
as,t nani, having
seditious language in the public streets
of Chatham,
been
formally approved, the
sentences passed on the prisoners were publicly pro-
mulgated at a general parade of the whole of the
officers and troops
eonyahodn
yesterday. The particular
charges on which the accused were arraigned be-
fore the Court were for having in High-street,
BrOMptol3, Chatham, on the evening of the 13th
ult. shouted out,
Colonel may " The Queen may —, and the
I'm an Irishman to the back-
bone, and I'll awing the same as Larkin and Allen
swung before. If there is any Irishman here, let him
fall to the rear,"
and other language of a corre-
sponding character. The prisoner Daley was like-
wise charged with striking Corporal Clarke of the
Royal Engineers, who was in charge of the escort
that conveyed the prisoners to the guard-room.
The Court found both the prisoners guilty, and
sentenced Daley to be branded with the;letters "B.
C.," to be discharged from her Majesty's service
with ignominy, and to undergo five years' penal
servitude ; the prisoner Molloy was also sentenced
to bo dismissed from the army with ignominy, to
be branded with the letters " 8.C.," and to be im-
prisoned and kept at hard labour for two years.
After the order of the Court had been read the
prisoners had portions of their uniform stripped
from them, when they were marched to the bar-
rack-gates, the band playing the "Rogue's March,"
and handed over to an escort for conveyance to
prison.
Orders were yesterday received at Chatham gar-
rison directing the following detachments to be held
in readiness for embarkation for India, to join the
service companies of their respective regiments :
Four officers and 82 non-commissioned officers and
men of the Ist battalion of the Ist (King's Royal)
Regiment ; three officers and 152 men of all ranks
of the 2d battalion of the Ist Royals ; three officers
and 54 non-commissioned officers and privates of
; the 82d (Prince of Wales' Volunteer) Regiment ;
one officer and 34 men of the 106th Bombay Light
Infantry ; and one officer and 20 men of the 109th
Bombay Infantry ; giving a total of 12 officers and
342 men of all ranks. A detachment of four offi-
cers and 111 men of all ranks of the Ist battalion of