, 1891-01-21
LONDON FIRE PERl-S.
A Portion Of the Metropolis Inadequately
Protected Against Fire.

- n - 80
Protected Against Fire.
Waen the bulletins of the afternoon pa
per- contained the alarming, though rather
vague, news Of a big fire in London, a man
asked me II / thought the entire city was
likely to be consumed. II did not seem
very probable TO me that the immense col,
lection Of cities, towns and villages. cover
ing perhaps $50 square miles, that is called
London, would meet the fate Of Chicago,
The fact that the Thames river divides
London roughly INTO two parts makes such
a fiery doom for the whole metropolis well
nigh impossible. But there are other rea-
sons, OF course, in plenty. The absence of
frame houses and of fimsy structures of
brick that are little better than wood in
the face OF u conhagration is a great oh
stacle TO the spread OF fire in London.
When the London Of Charles IFS time
was burned, in 1895, frame houses FREEDOM
mated, and the single bridge that SPAWNED
the Thames, London bridge, with It's street
OF God houses, was a train to carry the
fire to the south side OF rhe river, although
more than a village. 1t was singular how
the Carpenters company kept control Of
the building trade until the great fire set
people to thinking about the inflammabil-
ity Of wood.
Even as late as 1850, ten years before the
great fire. we find the Carpenter com
~pauy-which may be compared in its gen
eral influence and control Of the trade TO
our trade unions memorializing pariia-
ment to prohibit the use Of stone and brick
for buildings because, as they humorously
put IL, "the timber buildings are more
connections for this city han brick" But
-RfteFtheI3Fe ParlIRmeRtTHade sh9F+HsEk
OF frame buildings, and the act which was
passed then fOrbidding the use OF wood eN.
cept for floors, windows, doors and shop
fronts has been practically in existence
ever since. The result has been that in
spite Of narrow streets and a VIGOROUSLY
insufficient fire service, London has escaped
widespread fires; although the fire losses
have been far heavier than they ought to
be in a city of LondOn's wealth and ciyili-
Zatiou.
a feature Of a fire In Victoria street,
which the American correspondent noted
derisively, was the humble Of hand engines
which still cucumber the London fire
brigade. l see by a report OF the London
fire department, published in 1887, that it
owned then forty-hve steam fire engines
and se~venty-eight six inch ANU fire en-
Cines and thirty-seven hand engines under
six inch. There have been some improve
ments made in the department since Capt.
Shaw, It's chief, visited America In 1887,
but the hand engines are still in the ma
jority no doubt.
Pittsburg has about twenty-five steam
fire engines, or half as many as London,
with, | suppose, less han a tenth of the
area to protect. It is singular that the
London fire insurance companies and the
merchants do not force the authorities to
remodel the fire service on the American
plan. The only particular 10 which the
Londoners can point with pride is the per-
sonnet Of the brigade. They are a very fine
set Of men physically-picked men, invari-
ably, from the English navy, il being the
rule OF the London department to recruit
their force with sailors soaely.-PittsburG
Chronicle.