The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-06-17
THE FIRE DEPARTMENT.


among the permanent men of the fire de-
partment by the recent tour of inspection
of the city officials. One of the features
of the inspection was a test which showed
the length of time required to take the
apparatus out of each house. The time
varied from 16 to "a seconds according to
the skillfulness of the permanent men
and the character of the apparatus, sur
roundings, etc.
Edward kneller, the permanent man of
the Century company, made the best
time in the official test. He got the two
horses and hose wagon of the company
out of the house in 16 seconds and that,
too, with the disadvantage of a very low
ceiling ard some other minor handicaps.
The permanent men at the Phoenix
house got the chemical engine out in 1912
seconds and on a second, but unofficial
trial, reduced the time to 13 seconds.
They have a record of getting the engine
out in even less time than that. The Crys-
tai company holds the record for getting
a steamer out of the house. They did the
trick in IS seconds.
Louis Farber, of the Relief Engine COM
pany, got the two horses and hose wagon
OF that company out in 1874 seconds and
on a later Unofficial test reduced the
time to II seconds. Mr.. Farber is ac-
counted one of the best horsemen in the
department. Good time was also made
by the Excelsior company, of Providence
Many of the permanent men have gone
systematically to work to train the
horses in their care to respond in more
intelligent manner with a view TO cutting
down the length of time it requires to set
out of the houses to alarms of fire. Some
of the horses demonstrated that they had
been carefully trained In that respect,
but the actions of others left much to be
desired. The first few minutes after an
alarm of fire is sounCed are the impcr-
tant ones and whatever tends to cut
down the length of time which must in
tervene between the alarm and the arrival
of the firemen deserves to be encouraged.
Constant practice by the permanent men
and careful selection and training of
horses for fire department work will do
much to expedite the appearance of fire
| men at the point where their services are
needed.
1t was shown by Mondays end Tues
days tests that most of the automatic
appliances used to open the doors of
engine houses work altogether too slow
and invariably several seconds were lost
| from that cause and from the fact that
| the doors in nearly every instance open
| inwards. AS a remedy for this Building
| Inspector Nelson suggested that all of the
| doors should open outwards and be. so ar
| ranged that when closed they would
| slant at an angle of about As degrees with
the apex of the angle pointing toward
| the street. By that arrangement the
| doors could be opened In less than one
| half the time they are at present, because
| they would have less distance to travel
and there would be greater saving Of
| time than this for the horses could start
from the building the moment the doors
| begin to open. Now, in consequence of
| the doors swinging back into the build
| ing, the horses have to be held back until
the doors are fully opened and back out
of harms way.
Nearly all of the buildings rented by
the city for fire department purposes are
| sadly unsuited to the needs of the COM
| pany. The one notable exception is the
| building occupied by the William Connel
| Hose company, which suffers nothing by
| comparison with the buildings owned by
| the city. In all of the other rented build
| ings the ceiling Of the first floor are so low
| that the drop harnesses cannot be prop
| erly swung and the driver is in great dan
| ger of injuring himself every time he
| gets on the box of the wagon. This is
particularly true of the Century Hose
house and the building occupied by Re-
lief Engine company of Petersburg.
| The building occupied by the Cumber-
land company is nothing better than a
| barn and during the long winter months
| the wind whistles through the cracks and
| It is almost impossible TO keep the place
warm. The cheap wall paper that was
stretched over the rough hemlock boards
In the meeting and bunk rooms on the
second floor is cracked in a hundred
places and gives the apartments very
| disreputable appearance. Fortunately
the Cumberland boys will soon have more
inviting quarters of their own.
No building owned by the city stands In
greater need of immediate attention than
the structure on West Market street oc-
cupied by the Liberty and Niagara COM
panies and also used as a police station.
| 1t Is vile beyond description.