The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-12-18
FIREMEN NEEDED a REST.
Men and Horses Both Knocked Out
by Their severe Experience.

The hremen had nee led rest yes erday
after tire constant calls and hard work of
the last few days. That fires run in
punches" is an old saying with the fire
men and an epidemic of fires is nothing
new to them.
Coming after long period of COMPARE
tive likeness, when they have had but lit
lie active work TO do. the efforts demanded
by the succession of fires during the lat
| ter part of last week was more severely
| feft by the men than would otherwise have
been the case. The horses are fully as
much effected as the men, II not more so.
Both men and horses are sore from unus-
ual exercise and suffering with colds caus-
| ed by rushing out into the cold air from
/ their comfortable engine houses or from
| becoming chilled when tired and worn
| out. Chief MaguiIe is suffering from bad
| cold and his big buggy horse duBigron is
| so nearly knocked out that the chief has
! decided 10 give him a rest for day or
| two.
! The members of the Savannah fire de-
| partment do not mind fighting fires, and
! would have no objection to fighting one
! every day, but they would prefer 10 have
| them at regular int rivals instead of having
| three or four punched together in one
/
| O'Clock yesterday morning less than IS
| hours, the firemen responded 10 eight
| alarms sent in from various boxes, and
| in addition to these 10 four telephone
! calls, making a total of twe.Ve calls res
! ponced. to in This time, or about one every
| four and half hours. While he major
ity OF these fires proved to be unimportant
\ the frequent calls serve to break the rest
OF the fremen and to leave them in bad
| shape. They were also aware that most Of
/ these fires were of incendiary or gin and
| this served 10 keep them in suspense as
| they never knew when they would be
calld upon for another response nor from
| what quarter it would come.
| The first of this succession of calls was
| to the Chatham Academy Thursday night
| when the first and unsuccessful attempt
was made to burn that building. This
| proved easy enough. In common with the
| rest of the people of Savannah the fire
men attributed this work to mlschievous
| boys, aud did not dream that they would
so soon be called upon to face a serious
confiagration in the academy building.
| At 1:30 o'clock the next morning came
the call to Justice Naughtin's Office on
| Bryan street, which Fire Superintendent
| Mcguire pronounced to be of incendiary
| origin, the fire being located in a pile of
| chips and waste about the middle of the
| cellar. The firemen were then given a
| breathing spell until Friday afternoon,
|
| School, where they exunguished the in
cendiary fire there with little trouble and
| small loss.
Saturday morning the fremen were rous-
| ed from their beds by the second call to
the Chatham Academy, finding the whole
| eastern wing of the building in flames.
1t took three hours work to get this fire
| completely under control, and half the de-
| partment put in several additional hours
| finishing up the work. The academy fire
| had hardly been gotten In hand when there
| was call to Sl6 Jones street, west, which,
| however. proved to be unimportant.
As if the flremen had not already put in
a good days work someone turned in an
| alarm that night because smoke was seen
issuing from a chimney at ST. Patri k s
| School. This luckily was false alarm.
but an extra run at that time was harder
upon the menIand horses than fighting an
ordinary fire at any other time. At II 40
o'clock the men at the central station re-
sponded to a telephone call from 53j Ogle-
thorpe avenue, where defective fireplace
had cause small blaze.
The firebugs were evidently determined
that the department should have no rest
and at ITO a. m. the entire depar ment
responded to box at Bay and Whitaker
streets, an attempt having been made TO
fire the warehouse of r. IS. Salas, at the
| foot of Whitaker street. 1t was lucky
! that the fire was discovered 50 soon as the
fires and the firemen always dread an
alarm from box s, This ought 10 have
been enough, but at a. m. the fremen
were called to box q on East Broad street
| a small coOkshop a t East Broad and Har-
| ris streets showing an incipient blaze This
fire might have been extinguished with a
| couple of buckets of water and it was a
| pity to call out the firemen in their ex-
| hausted condition. Apparently the Shop
had been set from the outside and this
| was also set down as an incendiary at
| tempt. The property is owned by H. VIM
| ters she shop being conducted by r. w.
| Wilson, colored. The damage was very
slight. BY this time the parties who ha1
| been so carelessy distributing fife
| throughout the city recalled the fact that
1t was Sunday and decided to suspend op-
erations for the day. Two local alarms
ny, one Friday and the other Saturday,
while No. 8 also responded to a call in The
| southern section Friday afternoon.
Foreman Joe Campos and his men at
| headquarters declare an old pigeon box on
| which they began work some time since
to have been their Jonah They never
started work on this box, but what there
was a fire. Yesterday the pigeon box was
split up into kindling wood and the men
at No. 2 are satisfied that they will now
| get a good rest.
Some idea of the heat generated by the
conflagration at the Chatham Academy
| may be gained from the fact that the old
bell, which disappeared when the roof of
/ the building gave way beneath the belfry,
| was found to have been partially melted.
The old bell has called many generations
of school children to their studies and
| pieces of it are in great demand as relics.
| -s-e-S
ALTAR CLOTHS FOR ST. PAUL's.
| -