El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-04-20
PREPARING FOR THE FIREMEN.
What is Being Done to Make the Conven
ton a Success.

| AS time draws nearer for the meet
! ing of the State Firemen's convention
in this city people naturally begin to
| INQUIRE as to what will be done, and
what is the program mapped out. 1t is
not yet known just what will be done,
or what the program will be. and no
one will know until the committee that
is now out soliciting have made their
report. If this committee is successful
in its efforts there will be quite an
elaborate program and the state fire.
men will be sumptuously entertained.
Many invitations have been sent out
to neig b boring cities in New Mexico
and Arizona and it is expected that
many firemep from cities in those ter
ritories will attend, but how many is
not yet known. Governor Ahumada,
of Chihuahua, has also been invited,
along with other state officials, and
every prominent officer or dignatary
of Juarez is invited to participate
in and help entertain the Texas state
fremen.
The colonel in comm and at Fort Bliss
has been invited to participate and has
been requested to join in the parade
with all the forces under his command
at Fort Bliss. This of itself would be
quite novelty, as many of the fremen
come from cities and towns that sell
dom see an United States soldier. much
less see several companies on dress
parade. There will also very likely
be on hand several state officials of
Texas. With all this, not only the
firemen, but the citizens of Ell Paso as
we'll, will be entertained and will make
showing that no other city of the size
of Ell Paso in the state can make.
The fremen will all turn out in full
uniform and the apparatus will all be
highly decorated. In the matter of
apparatus there is no city in the state
that can make abetter showing. There
are few things yet that are necessary
in the department to make it perfect,
one is the new life preserver that is in
use now in all the large cities. 1t is
an apparatus similar to that used by
the diver: the fremen places it on his
head and can enter room full of the
fOulest smoke and rescue any one who
may have fallen through suffocatiOn.
The fireman is projected from the foul
air by having an air reservoir on his
back, the air of which he inhales in
stead of the air in the building. This
apparatus has been thoroughly tested
and has proven entirely successful,
and the most useful apparatus yet in-
vented in saving life either at a fire, in
mines where miners have been over
come with foul gas, or in cellars where
ammonia pipes or tanks have burst and
against the fumes of which no living
creature can live. One of these APP
paratus would be sufficient and it
might some day be the only means of
saving life at an Ell Paso fire.
Two other requisites of the fire de- |
partment are ball nozzle and goose
necked nozzle. The first to be used 10 |
all fires, as by it the stream is spread |
and covers larger space of a burning |
edifce. 1t is also so arranged that a |
fireman holding it would not receive a |
shock if the stream should happen to |
come in contact with live electric |
wire; whereas, with the present |
straight nozzle, if the stream should |
strike live electric wire those hold |
ing it would receive shock. The |
gOOSe-neck nozzle is used for fires in |
cellars and when the fire is so located |
that a straight stream cannot be played |
on it. By cutting a hole in the floor |
and locating the fire the crooked nozzle |
can play a spreading stream of water |
on it and eXtinguish it, when if left to
the straight nozzle a cOntiagratiou |
might get Roadway that would burn
much valuable property. With Il !
crooked nozzle last July the Schulz
cellar could have been flooded and the
fire extinguished and the building
saved from total ruin. These appara-
tus should be added to the department
before the firemen's convention, and if
it were then shown that the FL Paso
fire department were the best equipped
in the state it would make d material
difference in the insurance rates of this
city.
The program anticip ated for the en-
tertainment of the fremen during
their three days stay in this city is as
follows: The first evenings enter
tainment will be given by Hose Com
pany No. 2, who will entertain all the
visiting fremen at the company's ex-
pense' The twos are we'll prepared to