Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1898-05-11
HEROES WHO FIGHT FIRE
Their Risks Increase In the Ratio
Of Our Progress.
Modern Buildings and Their Com
veniences Add EnormouRiy to the
Work of the Fircmen-jecurity
Built Upon Their Sacrifice,

His life Is too full OF real peril for
him to expose it reck.essly-that is to
say. needlessly. From the time when
lac leaves his quarters in answer TO an
alarm until he returns, he takes risk
TINT may at any moment set him
face TO face with death Ia lis most cruel
form. lie needs nothing SO much asa
clear head; and nothing Is priced SO
highly, nothing puts him 50 surely in
the line Of promotion; for az be adj
vanees in rank and responsibility, the
lives Of others, as well as his own, come
70 depend on his judgment. The act
OF conspicuous darlng which the word
applauds is oftenest TO the fireman
matter Of simple duty that had TO be
done In that way because there was no
other. Nor 10 1t always, or even usual
~, the hardest duty, as he sees 1t. 1t
came easy to him because he is a n ath-
lete trained to do such things, and be-
1nuse once for all it Is easier TO risk
ones life In the open, In the sight OF
ones fellows, than to face death alone,
cough, like rat In trap. That Is the
zeal peril which he knows too well. but
of that the public hears only when he
has fought his last fight and lest.
How literally our everyday security
OF which we think, II we think OF II at
all. as a mere matter OF course--is built
npon the supreme sacrifice OF these de-
voted men, we realize ut long intervals,
when a disaster occurs such as the
one in which Chief Bresnan and Fore
man Rooney lost their lives three years
ago. They were crushed 10 death I'M
der the great water tank in twenty
fourth street factory that was on fire.
It's supports had been burned away. An
examination that was then made OF the
water tanks in the city discovered s,oo0
that were either wholly unsupported,
except by the roof beams, or propPed
on timbers, and therefore direct men
nee. not only to the fremen when they
were called there, but daily TO those
living under them. 1t Is not pleasant
10 add that the departments just de-
pand for a law that should compel
landlords either to build tanks on the
wall or on iron supports has not been
Needed yet; but that Is. unhappily, an
cd story.
Seventeen years ago the collapse OF
Broadway building during a fire con-
WINGED the community that stone pil-
lars were unsafe as supports. The fire
was in the basement, and the freDen
had turned the hose on. When the
water struck the hot granite Columns
they cracked and fell, and the building
fe., with them. There were upon the
roof at the time a dozen men CT the
crew of trick company No. l. chop
ping holes for smoke vents. The ma
iori,y chung to the parapet, and hung
there til rescued. Two went down
into the furnace from which the flames
shot IN 20 feet when the roof broke.
One, Fireman Thomas l. Dougherty,
WAS wearer Of the Bennett medal. too.
Ills foreman answers on parade day,
when his name is called, that he died
on the field of duty" These, at all
events, did uot die in vain. Stone col
umnr are not now used In supports Tor
buildings in New York.
So one might go on quoting the perils
of the firemen as so many steps Tor
ward fer the better protection OF the
rest of us. l, was the burning OF the
ST. George flats, and more recently OF
the Manhattan bank. in which dozen
men were disabled. that stamped the
average iireproof construction as
faulty and largely delusive. One might
tveu go further, and say the fireman's
risk increases in the ratio of cur prog
ress or convenience, The water-tanks
caue with the very high buildings,
which in themselves offer problems TO
the fire fighters that have not yet been
solved. The very air-shafts that were
hailed as the first advance in tenement
house bullding added enormously TO
the fpeman's work and risk, us well as
to the risk OF everyone dwelling under
sbe roofs by acting as so many huge
chimneys that carried the fire TO the
open windows opening upon them in
every story. More than half OF all the
fires in New York occur in tenement
houses. When the tenement house
commission of 1904 sat In .his city,
considering means OF making them
safer and better. II received the most
practical hep and advice from the fire.
men, especially from Chief Bresnan,
whose death occurred only . few days
after he had testified as witness. The
recommendations upon which he in.
sisted are now part of the general tene-
ment house law.-Jacob A. Riis, in Cen
fury.
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