El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-12-28
Comparison of Fire Departments.


Much is being said just row of the
relative msri,s Of the fire department:
of the English metropolis and Amer
lean cities. The London fire brigade
has always been held up as a model for
other cities in the world, at least from
a British point of view: but since the
confiagration of few weeks ago there
is notable change of sentiment as tC
it's efficiency in time of greatest need
Chief Swenie, of the Chicago fire de.
partment, has been making some com
parsons, and while he is not prepared
to say how the London fire brigade
| fights fires, as he has never inspected
the service, he can say authOritatively
| that 1.-THE New York and Chicago sys-
TENS are as nearly alike as you can get
| them
tive estimates, he says, is the popula-
tiOn Of the cities, and in round num-
bers the popul atiOus stand as follows:
London, 1000, 900: New York, 200, 600,
600; CHICAGO, l, $780, 5O. AS to impor-
lance of these consi6 era tions Chief
| Swenie says: ''New York is more com
| pact than we are. She has goC streets
and good roads, which contribute to
the efficiency of the department.. Out
in some of our annexed territory we
have to run over rough roads and
sometimes through a foot of mud"
The average number of fires per an
mum is about next in point of impor-
lance and the latest tables show these
alarms for one year. Alarms in Lon
don, 3. 800; in New York, 4,577; in Chi
caqO, 1903.
The Chicago Inter Ocean in COM
mentiug thereon says:
The differenc in the figures is too
marked to mean that it is mere acct
dent. The London iremen may have
one personal advantage over the
Americans in the fact that the entire
city of London has less than three
hundred electric alarm boxes. That
makes it i'm practic. be for every pot
of grease that upsets into kitchen
range or every kerosene lamp that
blows up to ":ll out thirty or forty men
with the apparatus they attend. But
that advantage carries with it penal
ty. No second alarm can be rung in
rom ueHr box, because there is no
srrh thing az II pear box. That lack
of provision is based upon the theory
that the chances are with every fire
that it isn't going to amount to much
and that one company will be sufficient
to put it out. The fallacy of that
theory was exposed in the late confia-
grafton when a beginning that could
have been bapdied successfully by
several companies at the start made
an ending that could not be handled by
the whole brigade of London and was
brought about only by the exhaustion
of infiammable materials.
withstanding the greater number
of fires in the American cities in year
than there are in London, the former
have decidedly the advantage in the
matter of annual losses. as these re-
cent tables will show: London, Sc, 00O,-
900; New York, So. 500, 900: Chicago,
81, $40, 600.
The average loss of fires, according
to the same records, show that in Lon
don fire costs about 81 200 as against
$500 in New York and $448 in Chicago.
That would seem to leave q fair field in
which to infer that Chicago fires don't
Mount to much, or that the Chicago
is equal to keeping them
marked down in price.
Chicago employs l, 135 fire fighters,
New York has 1,455, while London
maintains but 700. A London fremen
gets only So week, while in New
York and Chicago the salaries range
from $4,000 per annum for q chief to
$40 for pipeuen, ti'ackmen and drivers,
although some of these receive higher
wages, according to conditions.
1t costs New York year 50, 100. 600
to run its department, Chicago paid out
81 ,5O2, O43 last year to maintain hers
while London spends but $500. 900 on
this very important branch of the city
service.-Standard.