The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-08-05
FIREMEN THEN AND NOW.
The Department Before the Wharf.-The
Fires This ear.

Fires This Year.
There is quite a difference between the
fire department Of to-day and that of ante
beilum days. Before the war there were
eleven volunteer companies, four white and
seyen colored, the latter differed by white
men. The old hand engines were in use, and
the water had to be taken from cisterns.
The white compaIies were the Oglethorpes.
known as the No. /; the Young Americas,
known as the No. ); the Washington, known
as the No. company and the Germania or
No los.
A Waterman was stationed in the tower
OF the city exchange, aud on the appear
ahce OF smoke from q fire he rang the bell
according to the ward in which the fire was
located. Ward l was designaj ed by tapping
Ln9 Dell once at intervals Of six seconds.
Inc wards we're numerically sounded.
Inc i1remen owned their own apparatus,
and took the best care Of it. The city man
aged TO get along without a steam engine
until after tue war, when the MetropJhtaus
bought the +. S. Barlow, the first steam fire
engine IN use here. The next steam fire
engine was bought by the No. 2's, and both
engines were pulled by hand TO fires for
long time, until Joseph n Rogers was
elected Chi OF the department, aud he intro
duced horses and the winging harness. Then
the steam engines were drawn by hoi seS,
but the hose reels were pulled to fires by
the men, who We'd with each other to get
to the fire first. The Metropolitan com
pany has furnished four chiefs to the de-
partment, to-wit: Col w j. Warning,
Oceola Butler, Adolph Fernandez and
VIM. b. Puder, and the Oglethorpes have
furnished four: Chas. Go don, VIM. Swol,
Judge Z. II. Russell aud Joseph A. Roberts.
When fire broke out the watchman
turned in the alarm from the city exchange,
and the boys were not long i'll getting to a
fire. The citizens would turn out and give
the tiremen lift at pulling the apparatus,
and sometimes as many as 200 would help
get one OF the hand engines to fire.
When the city adopted the paid fire de-
partment the Metropoitans and Oglethorpes
sold their engines to the city, and they are
still il Use by the city, and from that time
TO the present the citizens do not furnish
aid to the paid fire department, but depend
on it to do the work.
With the paid fire department came the
fire boxes of which there are now thirty
three In 1856 there were sixty-six alarms
turned in from them, eightY-two in 1887
and seventh -seYen last year. Some of the
boxes, Nos. 8 and 81, have never been
struck for fire since they were put up.
The greatest number of alarms are sent in
from boxes IL at West road and Broughton
and No. % at the Central railroad depot,
each having had twenty alarms sent in for
the past three and a,half years. For the
present year box IA is ahead with eight
alarms. This box always calls out large
crowd as it is at Broughton and Whitaker
streets, in the business heart of the city.
The number of fire alarms thus far this
year is AZ, and would indicate that there will
be more fires in 1889 than in 1887, when there
we're 81 alarms. The loss by fire has also
been greater than for many years, owing
to the burning Of many business houses on
April e.