Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1896-03-18

The probability that the movement
on the part of the Council Committee
on Fire Department and among mem
bers of Council generally, in the direc-
ton of a new building for the Atlantic
engine company, will be carried out du-
ring the present year, with the result
that the new building will be made the
central fire headquarters Of the city,
the hook and ladder track being quar-
tered there in addition to the present
engine company and the police patrol
wagon. has started a movement in the
direction of using the present hook and
ladder house on Twenty-frst street as
quarters for a new chemical engine OF
larger size than the one on Eleventh
street. with the possible addition OF a
tarpauin wagon in the near future
Councilmen on and off the Fire Com
mittee have been discussing the matter
informally, and the idea meets with
much favor among those who take a
broad gauge view of the situation IN
this city, as far as fighting fire is con-
cerned.
Of late the value of the chemical en-
CINE has been demonstrated most thor
oughly, and it is now recognized as
never before, by everybody from Chief
Healy down, that they form a very val
liable element of the fire-fghting
strength of the department. Light ana
easily handled, they reach all fires on
the Island or in the central portion OF
the city in advance of the heavier ma
chinery of the department, and catching
fires at the start drown them out, as
q rule. without the flood Of water which
must necessarily follow the use of plug
streams or engines, and which often
results in as much or more loss from
water than from fire. Half-a-dozen
times within the past six weeks the
chemicals have saved big money to
property owners. One instance was at
the fire at the residence of W. II.
Frank, another was at the Erskine <
Allison fire. and still another was at the
fire at Fourteenth and Chapline streets,
a few days ago, while an example of the
damage caused by throwing water into
buildings over stOrerOOms containing
large stocks of goods was afforded in
The recent fire in the upper portion Of
the McLain block. OF course. there
must always be care taken to keep up
the steamers and hose wagons and reels
to a high standard, for use whenever a
fire gets away from chemicals, or has
so good a start that one or more chem
icals cannot handle it, but there is
decided feeling that the policy of get
ting at a fire quickly, and smothering
it with carbonic acid gas before it gets
to be large blaze is the right one, and
il is in pursuance of this line that it is
proposed, when the new Atlantic en-
CINE house shall have been completed,
and the hook and ladder truck is re-
moved there, to reft the present hook
and ladder house and place therein a
chemical engine of larger capacity than
the one now CHARTERED on Eleventh
street. The Eleventh street machine
has capacity of 100 gallons. The
chemical which number of people
would like to see in the Twenty-frst
street house would have capacity of
three hundred gallons, with two indie
pendent lines Of hose, one from eacn
cylinder, and each line $50 feet long.
Such an engine would be more than
equal TO two of the machine now on
Eleventh street, and its position would
enable it to reach that portion of the
business district south of the line of
Thirteenth street prolonged to the river
as soon as the Eleventh street company,
while it could reach Twelfth street in
one or two minutes after the Eleventh
street company got there. This would
insure the complete covering of the en-
tire central portion of the city. where
heavy stocks Of goods liable to damage
by water are carried, within the short
est possible time. and would save many
thousands OF dollars in the event of
a fire which might otherwise be sacri-
feed by water
The idea has many things to COM
mend it to business men. whose inter
ests are directly at stake, and it is
very probable that it will materialize
as soon as the Atlantic building is pro-
ar f,f.