Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-02-14

and break downs are the rare exception.
THE fire department should be provided
with a repair shop sufficiently manned and
equipped to do all repair work, and Chief
Dutton is of the opinion. that great saving
of time and money wouid result; and he
also favors Mr. Robinsens recommends
ton that there should be two second
class engines so as to.eniarge the reserve
force of steamers. Unfortunately, how
ever. appropriations for repair shop and
the two reserve engines cannot be asked for
at present owing to the pressing need of
other features Of importance. Other cities
much smaller than Washington have fully
equipped repair shops for their fire appara-
tus, but ours is yet to come, though it Is
hoped that the time is not distant.
The old-style hose carriage Is one of the
time-honored institutions Of every fire de-
partment, but in time the hose cart will be
thing of memory only. They are now
needing frequent repairs. and will eventual
ly be displaced by the combination che1ni-
cal engine and hose wagon, the latter con-
sisting really of two pieces of apparatus a
chemical engine and hose cart. The
coming generation of the small boy in
Washington will not see the honored hose
cart as 1t plunges along our smooth streets
toward fires. but instead piece of highly
polished Nickel steel and brass apparatus
with big reel of hose on the rear, and
drawn by team of fleet runners great
many fires are extinguished by the use Of
chemicals, and Chief Dutton intends to
carry out tnlS neeueu REFORM IN ure nShtlnS
apparatus, and substitute the combination
chemical and hose cart as soon as circum-
stances and money permit.
Valuable Information for Household
Another point for l,eusehoIders: Too
little attention is given to the unseen flues
in houses, repairs to defects usually being
made after fires, instead of before The
ha ri nf
erty owners is shown by twenty-sx fires
last year from this easily preventa BILE
cause.
Il understand that there is no law in the
District whereby a persons carelessness
may be punished. The largest fire of the
year, that on The water front, involving a
loss of $4,000. and threatening the destruc-
ton of the entire water front of the city,
was believed to have been caused by a
lighted cigarette, or cigar, or the live ashes
from pipe, dropped on some rubbish
Twenty-Five additional fires were caused
during the year by lighted cigars or cigar
cites and twenty-one by the dropping of
lighted matches. cropping lighted cigar
stump or a cigarette down through the
grating in the sidewalk into store cellar
or basement has caused many fires, and, in
my opinion, the persons guilty of such a
piece or gross carelessness ought to be ar
rested and punished, If known
1T was only a few days ago that a citi-
zen was burned to death from the live
ashes dropped from his pipe while smoking
In bed Three additional fires in this city
last year were caused by men smoking pipes
in bed.
We Should Have Fire Searchlight.
''The fire department of Washington
should have searchlight as part of it's
apparatus. Searchlights are being used sue
cessfully in other cities, and some recent
experiments In Chicago along the lake front
have thoroughly proved their general eff
ficiency. We have had two large fires on
our water front where a seaehlight would
have been of the greatest serSice; of sery-
ice, In fact at any fire, and hope to see a
searchlight installed In Washington at the
earliest possible date. On bad nights. and
would be Of especially valuable service
Another thing which should be done for
our fremen is to provide them with new
uniforms to replace those ruined in fires: or
better still, make an allowance per man OF
20 year. which is about the average
amount expended, to replace such garments
hremans uniform may be ruined at-a=
single fire. AS our fire fighting forceTs the
poorest paid of any force in the country
with department as large as/ours the
men feel the loss out of their small pay
seriously. The aggregate amount would not
be large, and the individual assistance very
material to our men.
1t is approaching the season for clean
ing out the brush from rear yards and va.
cant lots. property owners are warned to
guard against the spread OF these ai parent
ly innocent little fires. as last year twenty
eight hres in the District were directly
caused by them, while the burning of rub
bish caused eight more fires.
another feature too much neglect I'd by
our householders is the cleaning of CHM
neys. Very few people seem to think it
worth while to keep the chimneys OF their
houses Clean and forty of these Careless
ones paid for their negligence last year in
the way of fires on their premises.
The distribution of buildings in which
hres originated is interesting, and the five
principal classes of buildings, and the num-
Der of fires therein last year, out of I'll
fires, are: Dwellings,, $50: stables, SO; sheds.
80; grocery stores, IS, and lunch rooms, Is.
There are comparatively few incenGiary
hres in Washington, about a score year,
while lighting caused two fires last year"