The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1881-02-13

TIE OPERATIONS OF THE NETROPOLiTAN FIJI
GRIGADf IL THE LAST TWELVE MONTHS.

TIE OPERATIONS OF THE NETROPOLiTAN FIRE
GRIGADf IL THE LAST TWELVE MONTHS.
London Times, January 24lh
At the meeting Of the Metropolitan Board
Of Works on Friday Captain Shaw, chief
officer OF the Metropolitan Fire Brigade,
presented hi, annuIl report Of the state OF
the brigade and The fires in London during
the year 1850, and OF which the follow ing
are the principal parts
The number OF calls for fires or supposed
fires received during the year has been
I2,l94. OF these 206 we're fal,e alarms, III
proved to be Only chimney alarms. and 81
were calls for fires, OF which 1872 resulted in
serious DAMAGE and 100 in slight damage.
These figures refer only 10 The regular calls
for fires or supposed fires, involving the
turning out OF hrcmen, 6re-engincS, frees
capes, horses, and cOachmeD. They do not
include triiling damages by fires which
were not sufficiently important to require
the attendance OF fremen; neither do they
include the ordinary calls for chimneyS on
| fire, which are separately accounted for
further on. The fires OF 1880, cOmpal ed
with those OF 1879. show an increase OF
lj3 and compared with the average OF the
last ten wears, an increase OF 224 The pro-
portion Of serious 10 slight losses, 1872 TO
/ 100, is decidedly favorable. and although
there has been ayery large increase in the
total number OF ires, the amount Of pro-
perty DESTROYED compares most adyanta-
gcOusly with The lo>>e. OF former years.
The number OF persons seriously cndan-
cered by fire has been 100: Of whom III
were saved and 33 lost their'ives. OF the
33 lost, II were taken ont alive, bIt died
afterwards in hospitals or elsewhere. and 10
~, tod
The number OF calls for chimncvs has
been 292. OF those l.j41 proved to be
false alarms. and 2.14j were for cbimucys
on fire. In these cists there wss no IT.
tendance Of engines. but OHly OF fire.
men with hand-iumDS. The number OF
journeys made by The tre-engines OF
the hfly-twO land stations has been
2j.7J4, ADD the tOtIl distance run has
been jS,377 miles. The quantity OF water
used for eXtinGuishing fires in the melrOpo-
lis during the year hi, been 2l,012. 139 gll-
lOns-in round numbers Il lttlr more than
81 ,000, 600 galiOn>-0r about 94.015 tons.
OF TINS quantity about Is lj1 tons, or lii
tie more than half Of the whole, was taken
from the river, canals. aud docks. and re
remainder from the sirect-pipes. During
the year there have been four cases OF short
supply Of water, thiry-fOur Of late attend
ance of tulncockS and six OF no attendance,
making altogether f0ry.fOur eases in which
the Interchangeable were unS tli>iaclOry.
The >trcnlth Of The brigade at present is
as follows: Fifty-twO land tire-engine' STA.
tons. } movable land stations. III fire.
escape stations, floating stations, 3 large
land steam re-eDs ines, 81 small land steam
fre-cnSiue-. % >iX.inch manual tire-cnglncs.
81 under >iX-glch manual iire.rnginr>. l3j
frc-eSclpcS and long >caliDg-lldder>. . float
Ing steam ire-englDts, | Nlcam-tug, 3 byrgeS,
l. hose carts. Is vans, > tr0llieS, IS tcle
graph lines, 40 miles of telegraph lines, q
fre.aarm circuits, with 40 call points, 1875
tremen, Including chief officers, >uperin
teHGent>, and all ;anks.
The number of iiremen employed on the
several wptchcs kept throughout the me-
ir0poliS is at present 81 nv day aud 2l2 by
night, making a total Oi 500 in every twr nty
four hours. The remaining men ure avail
able for general work at tires. Regarding
these numbers, | may confidently LAY that
the effective strength OF the brigade is more
nearly equai to The proper strength than l.
generally found in the larger services.