Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-21
DANGER FROM FIRE.
The East End Streets Impassnble for Fire
Engiues-Considerable Uneasiness is

The East End Streets Impassnble for Fire
Engiues-Considerable Uneasiness Is
Felt.
That danger from fire could be produced
| from an overplus of water is condition OF
affairs not usually contemplated by the
average citizen, but such appears to be the
case at present, judging from the report of
| Assistant Fire Chief William Coates to
| Chief Samuel n. Evans, of the Fire Bureau.
| He states that considerable portion of the
eastern end of Penn avenue, the portion that
| is unpaYed, is in such a condition that pub
| lie travel is almost suspended over it, and
to the machinery of the Fire Department it
is entirely closed, so that in case of fire in
such portions of that district as are not ac-
cessible bv other streets that are paved, the
building would simply have to be destroyed,
without hindrance, so far as the department
was concerned.
In commenting on this report Superin-
tendent Evans said last evening that fully
nine-tenths of the unpaved streets in the
suburban districts of the city we're in ex-
| actly the same position. The depth OF the
mud on such streets varies from six inches
to three feet, and until there is hard freeze
ing. Where the mud is more than foot
deep, even in spots, fire engine cannot go
because there is not space enough under the
fire box and machinery to clear the street.
There is not an engine in the city that has
more than IS inches in the clear under her
pumps, and in some of them the space is
not over IA inches. The result of one of
these engines passing over street where
the mud reaches depth OF more than a foot
would be to get the machinery clogged and
probably broken and the engine stuck so
fast that it would be necessary to take it
apart TO remove it.
On Mt. Washington the fire apparatus
was provided with tires of extra width, with
view to preventing the wheels from sink
ing so deep in the mud, but in the present
condition of the streets even this precaution
does not have the desired effect, and, as in
the case of the fire in the Thirty-frst ward
last Sunday night, when house burns they
are simply compelled to let it burn because
the apparatus cannot get near it.
In the East End, on such streets as Roup,
Craig, Walnut and Baum streets, Aiken,
Center and Anderson avenues, if fire were
to break out Just now, unless it happened to
be very near to one of the main paved
thoroughfares, the department would be un-
able to do anything but stand and watch it
burn. This condition of affairs prevails
over much the largest portion of the East
End district and over large territory in the
other outlying districts. In the East End
much of the trouble has been caused by the
construction of sewers, making connections
with water and gas pipes and other improve
ments, but the unpaved roads at this season
are almost without exception impossible to
the heavy fire engines.
Superintendent Evans was asked what he
thought a remedy for this condition of
affairs.
''Let the people get their streets paved.
Nothing else can be done. If they want the
fire protection they help to pay for they
must spend money for pavements and it
might as well be done first as last