The herald., 1898-06-09
ENOUGH HORSES
Fire Commissioners Consider Equine
Question-Civil Service Rules


Astonishing as is the statement, it is
fact that the Los Angeles fire department
with forty-eight trained horses in service
has but one trained horse in, reserve. If
by any accident two or more horses should
be disabled. the apparatus which they
hauled would have to be laid up, useless
until new horses could be broken in. AS
is we'll known, fire department work. is
the hardest work that horses can have.
Not only are the loads heavier than the
ordinary truck loads, but the horses are
compelled to go on run over streets
where team of carriage horses would be
driven at a walk for fear of accident.
In the department today are horses so
lame that they are unfit TO be driven, but
Chief Moore is helpless, for if he lays the
horses up, he lays the fire engine up at the
same time, and this, with the limited
amount of apparatus he has at his COM
mand he dares not do.
Last week there were fourteen alarms of
fire, five in one day, and on the day men,
toned Joe" who helps to pull engine No.
1, is 10 years of age and has been in the de-
partment in active service for IA years
dropped in the harness from exhaustion.
ut was enough to make a man cry" said
Chief Moore yesterday, "but what could I
do? l had to drive him because there were
no horses to take his place. 1t punished
all of us almost as much as the old horse
to send him out again and again, but if you
put out fires you must have the engines,
and have them quick A minute at the start
of fire is worth more to the department
than an hour after a conflagration has
got a start"
In the department service there are fifteen
horses upwards of 10 years of age, ten of
the fifteen being upwards of IA years of
age. Their terms of service run from eight
to fourteen years, the average being 10
years.
All this is preliminary to the meeting of
the fire commission yesterday, when Com
missioner c. M. Wells opposed the pur-
chase of a new team of horses asked for
by the chief, on account of the price $3.50,
and thus delayed much needed relief to the
overworked and suffering animals in the
department.
In fact Commissioner Wells appeared in
the role of an objector a. yesterdays meet
ing.
When the commissioners met at 10 in the
morning. all members were present except
Commissioner Sabchi. The chiefs report
of alarms, IA in number for the week end
ling June T. was read and filed.
The chief announced that he had so ar
ranged vacations in the fire department
this year as to allow al .he men a brief
rest without additional cost to the city.
The vacation period will commence on the
Goth inst.
The electricians report was filed.
hot he IL
"a civil service examination for hosemen
laddermen, callmen and sub-callmen. Com
missioner Wells wanted to know if the
examination included applicants fori po-
sitions in the department, and Chief Moore
said it did not.
Then it's no civil service" said Wells
TITS useless to talk about civil service rules
unless every man who wants to- get into
the department is examined. The way it is
now, the man with pull gets the job. What
should be done is to examine every man."
"If we did that half the town would want
10 be examined" said Mayor Snyder
THE way we are doing is the only way, SC
long as we have call system instead OF
a full paid department"
Wells insisted that the examination
should be open to every body and that
the men for the department should be Sc
Ilected from those passing the examination
with the highest marks.
Chief Moore explained that such plan
would be impracticabe
There's many man who could answer
all the questions asked and who could meet
the physical requirements" said the chief
but who would be utterly worthless as a
fireman. Your test of mental and mere
physical ability would not do for firemen
What we do now is to put a man ON proDs-
ton for several months, let him show
whether he is the kind of man the de-
partment needs. If he is, then we compe