Evening star., 1903-10-24
The FIRE SERVICE
Annual Report Submitted to
Commissioners.
WRITTEN BY DUTTON
FORMER CHIEF FILES HIS FINAL
ACCOUNT.
Exceptionally Small Loss During Year
More Pay for Men Urged
New Apparatus.
WRITTEN BY DUTTON

When in June last Mr.. Robert W. Dutton
rendered his resignation chief of the
District fire department to accept the po-
sition of deputy recorder of deeds he prom
ised his successor Chief William 7. Belt, to
write the annual report of the department
covering the operations during the fiscal
year ended June d. ,:~3. That report Mr..
Dutton this morning submitted to the Com
missioners.
1t is stated that the late date of the re-
port is due to delays in the receipt of the
various data upon which it is based.
The report shows that during the past
year the department answered S19 alarms
OF fire. an increase of 4S over the number
responded to during the preceding year.
There was however, a decrease of in the
bell regular alarms, and the increase or
30 in the local or silent alarms was largely
due to the greatly increased use OF OIL Ior
heating and cooking purposes during the
coal strike of last year. Fifty-siX of the
Sl9 alarms were false. an increase or IL
over the previous year, and q of the hreS
being outside the District there occurred
within the District 757 fires, but 81 more.
Notwithstanding the almost universal use
during the past winter of oil as a fuel fuel.
than occurred during the fiscal year OF l9o2
The total estimated loss during the past
year was $l5726l. the smallest loss, with
the exception of that of the year previous,
S134, 504, during the past thirteen years,
and the smallest loss for two consecutive
/ years since 1880.
Mr.. Dutton states that the property dam
aged by fire during the past year was COW
cred by an insurance of s., 1882, the loss
being less than Z per cent of the insurance,
as was the case the year before Two hum
dred and fifteen of the $40 alarms respond
ed to occurred between noon and O'Clock
p. m; 27s between o'clock p. m. and mid
night; 100 between midnight and O'Clock
a. M, and 217 between 6 o'clock a. m. and
noon. The smallest number of alarms re-
| 1a1 in, one occurred
during June and the largest number 012)
in December. During the summer months
153 alarms We're received; during the fall
months, 119; during the winter months
$50, and 1877 during the spring months
SlXty-three alarms were received during
July; August, II; September, 30; October,
| II: November 50; December, H.; January,
95; February, 50; March, 70; April. 50;
May, IA. and June, 43. There We're IL eN-
tra-alarm fires during the year.
The New Apparatus.
While no new company was added to the
department during the past year, the men,
apparatus and horses for the Congress
Heights chemical engine company were
provided and the department, says Mr..
Dutton, was prepared to place that COM
papy in service al an hours notice as early
| as last December. He refers to the placing
| in commission early last January of the
three powerful extra first-class metropoli-
tan steam engines purchased on his recon-
menda ton and to the seventy y-five-fOot Sea-
| grave aerial truck. the seventy-five-font
ladder of which piece he states, the mem
bers of truck A soon learned to raise In
less than twenty seconds. These four
pieces of apparatus and the double eighty
| ve-galon chemical engine for Congress
Heights, states Mr.. Dutton, met every re-
quirement when officially tested.
Referring to the three combination chem
ical engine and hose wagons provided by
the current District appropriation act Mr.
Dutton expresses the hope that the depart
| ment will soon be enabled to replace all of
it's antiuuated nose reels with such modern
and much more effective pieces of appa-
ratus. Stating that upon the installation OF
truck company G, Sth street between d and
E southeast, the house for which is now
nearing completion, Mr.. Dutton explains
that the department will then consist of
fourteen steam engine companies. seven
truck companies and five chemical engine
| companies, twenty-SiX companies in ALL an
increase of six during the past three years
But not even them he asserts, will the
department be much more than half as
large as it should be made, and at the
earliest day practicable there should be eS-
tabliShed in the northwest section of the
city two or three additional steam engine
companies and truck company; another
steam engine company in the southeast sec
ton: a steam engine and a truck company
in the northeast section; a truck company
in the southwest section. and chemical
company at Benning and other suburban
points There should also be purchased at
| least three steam engines for reserve pur-
poses. Today there are but two steamers
, available in the department for reserve
purposes and several times during the past
wear accidents to engines in active service
necessitated the placing of the two reserve
steamers in active service, thereby leaving
the department without reserve piece of
such apparatus. There being but one re-
serve truck, another should be provided,
and as there is no reserve chemical engine.
that deficiency should be at once remeded
The Congress Heights house being quite
large enough, and there being pressing need
O.. truck in that section, fifty or fifty
, five-foot aerial truck should be acquired
| and placed in that company. 1t is conceded
that because of the long, steep hill re-
qured to be climbed in order for truck
from the city to reach the Government Hos
| pital for the Insane, lives would almost
| certainly be lost before a city truck could
reach that Institution in the event of dis
astrous fire in one of its occupied buildings.
| whereas a truck at Congress Heights would
have a downgradc run of less than mile
| to the hospital.
During the past year forty horses in serv
, | ice in the department We're ported by the
veterinarian to be unfit for further fire
service, and they were therefore condemned
and turned over to the property clerk for
disposal. Two horses died during the year
and four were purchased, the aver
age price being $3.50, as it was the year
, | previous
More Horses Needed.
2 Approying a recommends ton of DR.. C. B.
| Robinson the District veterinarian, that
there be an increased appropriation made
for the purchase of horses to replace those
5 condemned in the fire department, Mr.. Dut-
ton quotes DR.. Robinson as follows:
"These animals are not lost to the Dis
trict as they are distributed by the prop
| erty clerk among the several departments
of the District government. An increased
| appropriation for fire horses would not
t | onlv enable the fire department to at once
replace every horse found unfit for further
active service therein, but would also pro-
vide the other departments of the District
with horses which could be used by them
: for several years. The District engineer
S department has at the present time, 1t is
e estimated, fifty horses or more which were
e turned over to it during the past ten yeai
!, by the fire department These animals,
e while found unfit for active fire duty, have
been found serviceable for slow work and
for hauling purposes
: Mr. Dutton renews his recommendation
e that the department be provided with a re-
e pair or machine shop. The department ma
! chinist believes that a suitable shop could
| he erected on land owned by the District