The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-04-25

key, and the other the keyleSS box,
for which no key is necessary. Very
often people wanting to turn in an
alarm go to d keyless box which is
opened by turning a crank which rings
a large gong on the inside. Hearing
this gong ring, they believe they have
turned in an alarm and then return
to the fire and wonder why the de-
partment does not appear, and this ac-
counts sometimes for the Roadway a
fire obtains before the department ar
rives. All the boxes have a sign at
tached to them or over them which
gives full instruction as to the manner
of turning in an alarm but in the ex-
element the people do not stop to read
them. In the case of a key box the
key is left at some prominent place
close to the location of the box, and the
key must be secured before the box
can be opened, and then cannot be re-
moved until released by an officer of
the department with his release key.
Every police officer carries one of these
keys, but he, too, must wait until his
key is released after turning in an
alarm. Both boxes are constructed on
the same principle on the inside, the
Onl.- difference being the manner of
opening the outer door. When the door
is opened a hook on the inside is pulled
down and this conveys the alarm i'm
mediately to the alarm station at fire
headquarters, where it goes through
to an automatic repeater which sends
the alarm out to every station in the
city. One alarm brings in response in
the business district four engines, two
hook and ladder companies and one
chemical engine, and a second alarm
brings about the same additional APP
paratus. In the outside districts, one
larm brings in response two engines,
one hook and ladder and one chemical
engine, in districts where they are. In
the district Immediately outside the
business portion of the city the first
alarm brings out three engines, one
hook and ladder and one chemical. The
second alarm in all cases brings the
same additionl apparatus. There are
five alarms in all, known as the first,
second third, combination third and
fourth and general alarm. The cOmbi-
nation alarm brings two-thirds of the
apparatus to a fire, and a general
alarm brings everything in the depart
ment. The first alarm is sounded four
times, and the second alarm is sound
ed by eleven taps, followed once by the
box number, and this applies to the
others, except the combination or gen
eraI alarms, the former is sounded by
four taps followed by eleven taps once,
and the general alarm is sounded by
eleven taps once, preceded by six taps.
Then there is the still alarm sent
in by telephone or messenger. The
first anOinna apIiNno q fro
act on their own judgment and lay
out hose and turn Oh water; the others
as they arrive report to the chief or
officer in charge and are assigned a
station. All companies are obliged to
remain at their posts until ordered
home by the officer in charge of the
fire. Companies who do not respond
to an alarm in case of fire move into
the next nearest station of a company
in attendance at the fire and cover
the districts of the out company as
we'll as their own, in case of another
alarm, like in cases where the down.
town companies are all out, the central
district is covered by the companies in
outside districts and these must re
main at the other house until the home
company returns and is reported home.
Each company as relieved is
reported over the whole de-
partment. and each company when
it returns home is obliged to re-
port at once to headquarters. and it IS
then reported over the department
home, so that every company knows
when the others return home. Afte"
the return home of a company the wet
hose is taken off and washed and re-
placed on the reel again, excepting in
winter time. when the wet hose is tax
en- off and hung up to dry and thaW
out and is replaced with dry hose
every piece Of machinery and appara-
y
inspected and the apparatus placed n
readiness for another run" This ruiz
Is very strict one and is in force
night and day and applies to all cases,
so that sometimes when a company
returns after a night fire, they hay :
to labor for an hour or sometimes more
before being permitted to return to
bed. Should an engine be found de =
fective or out of order it is immedi-
ately taken out of service for repairs
and one in reserve is put in its place
until the repairs are made.
The department is equipped with
thirteen steam engines-twelve in serv-
ice and one in reserve, two aerial
trucks, six hook and ladder trucks,
one water tower, seventeen hose wag-
ons and carriages, four chemical en-
gines three chiefs buggies, one super
intendent alarm system buggy, one
Iineman's and wire wagon and IL
hOfSeS. Inc WnOlS Is operated ny q
force of 1872 officers and men.
The quarters of the men in the
various houses would do credit 30
many a well-kept house; there is q
place for everything and it never gets
out of that place only when in use.
Each man is his own chambermaid
and every house has a houseman who
sees that the men perform their duty
in this respect. Every man is required
to be up ready for duty at z a, M,
whether he has been called out half
dozen times or not during the night. 1t
is then the daily routine work COM
mences, such as cleaning up the house
cleaning apparatus, care Of horses, etc
This work lasts each day until about
10 to 1890 a. m, after which the men
are at liberty to take it easy, unless
there is some repair work or painting
etc, to be done. as all this kind OF
work is done by men of the depart
ment Nothing in the way of repair
work is done or goes outside excepting
some casting of a part of machinery
or something that is of that nature
a fter the work of cleaning up, etc. is
done each day the men are ther
obliged to dress in uniform and re-
main so until p m, after which time
they are at liberty to retire if they
wish. but they rarely do so until after
10 D. m. when the house is as quiet
and still as a church. Before retiring
each man places his night clothes
-yI.ich consists of a pair Of rubber
boots with trousers-known as Bunk
ers" placed over them and so arranged
that when the men jump out of bee