The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-01-03
Japanese Firemen.

Japanese Firemen.
Says an English periodical in q
graphic account Of Japanese fremen
and the methods employed by them in
extinguishing fires It was big fire.
there was no doubt about it. In Con-
stantinople and New York, fairly big
events of this sort occasionally occur,
and are made much of, but to see King
Fire in all his awful power and glory,
Japan should be visited. Although we
had been pretty prompt in obeying the
alarm bell, we found that the fire had
already made considerable progress, and
at first, unprotected az we were by
helmets or hoods, we found it difficult
even to look at the raging scene before
expanse of dancing flame, intersected by
burned or burning buildings. By de-
grees we became accustomed, and we
saw our brigade double up into action,
place the engine in position, squirt at
the flames, which seemed to have the
most undisputed mastery everywhere,
and send forward the hook and ladder
men-reckless fellows. who seemed to
have the utmost contempt for flames
and falling timber, and wha went into
the danger as if they were going to
wedding. To us, accustomed to the
stern, silent, business-like manner of the
London fremen, there was something
savoring of burlesque in the efforts of
these Yeddo brigades to combat the
flames. The general effect was that of
what is known as a pantomine orally"
every one bowling, shouting, running
to and fro, and upsetting one another,
amid shower of beams, tiles, and arti-
cles of furniture, without any apparent
order or method. There was great
deal of movement and great deal of
uproar, and, during the whole perform.
ance, the flames seemed to wander just
where they pleased, singeing here,
blistering there, but, as a rule, COM
pletely quitting what they came in con-
tact with. Meanwhile, our engine had
come to utter grief. But this, to our
eyes, was of very little consequence, as
it had served simply to dampen the
jackets of the fremen SO it was re-
moved, and all the energies of the bri-
gade were devoted to the object of pre-
venting the spread of the fire by the
whole demolition of houses. With this
object in view the hook and ladder men
were sent forward into the houses which
were more Immediately threatened with
destruction, while the battering rams
huge piles Of wood with tremendous iron
forks at the ends-were run up under
the charge of the most stalwart coolies
of the brigade. The captain, armed
with a huge standard, was sitting
straddle-legged on the roof of house,
and by his movements those of the bri-
gade were directed. Until he retreated
not man dared to dream of yielding an
inch, and we trembled for the safety of
our fine old friend as we saw him ap-
parently alone in a blaze of flame, or
half hidden in the dense volumes of
smoke, which rose from the burning
masses on all sides of him. And here
we may remark that although the disci-
pline of the brigades, their methods of
procedure, and their total unbusiness-
like air of doing everything were to be
condemned in toto, too high praise
cannot be bestowed on the individual
pluck and agility of the members. We
in Europe are now familiar with the ex-
traordinary feats of Japanese acrobats,
but to see this skill and agility put to a
practical use one should "assist" at a
Yeddo fire. When the word is given for
the hook and ladder men to go into
action, it is treat to see some score of
muscular, active-limbed young fellows,
not one of whom pauses a moment to
look at the danger into which he is
going headlong, dash into the houses
already tottering to their fall, swarm on
struggle up almost perpendicular slopes
nf1 1nnoa ki1ao pffa,, NTH N ix, a.,
mouths, jump over yawning chasms of
flame as if they were two-foot bitches,
fasten the grapples to the blazing
timbers, jump down and signal an "all
right to gang of coolies below, who
are hanging to the chain or rope. The
wall totters backward and forward for q
minute, but extra mettle is put into a
final pull, and down comes the whole
blazing side of house, burying half-a-
dozen tiremen, sending up huge pillar
of smoke and sparks to the sky, and
calling forth tremendous yell from the
admiring crowd. Scarcely has it fallen
when dozen active fellows are hard at
work with their hooks. From under
one heap of timbers jump out two or
three of the hook and ladder men, who
rub their bruises and laugh frantically.
Out OF cavern of smouldering ashes
crawls another, with an arm broken !;
while from the innermost recesses are
pulled out two Or three poor, blackened,
mutilated remains of what were few
minutes back rollicking fellows in the
prime and strength of manhood. These
last are gently carried off on shutters
and tomorrow will be followed to their
last resting place under the cryptomer-
las and azaleas on the hillside yonder
by crowd of relations and comrades,
proud in the midst of their sorrow of the
deaths met with in the public cause.