The Savannah morning news., 1904-07-03

toners. Nobody but the captain of
the department knows when these tests
are coming, and the test alarm may be
sounded from any floor or from any
part of any floor.
The men composing the fire brigade
may be, some of them, putting on their
hats to go home; they may be, some,
descending q stairway, or they may be
walking across a floor on their way out
of the store: But at the sound of the
fire signal they cease instantly what
ever they may be doing, and all make
for the scene of the alarm.
Some carry axes, and some hooks,
and some fire extinguishers, each of
these carrying whatever implement or
appliance he may have been assigned
to use and drilled in the use of; while
some men come racing across the floor
with the big fire extinguishers that are
moved on wheels, and others that nave
been assigned to that duty come at a
lively gait stretching the fire hose:
Every man knows his exact duty, ana
all have been repeatedly drilled in II;
and they perform this fire drlll WIN
astonishing precision and celebrity, ana
they arc kept sharp up to it and al
ways ready by frequent surprise tests.
In another such establishment they
have surprise test fire drills or the
store fire brigade at least once week.
Here the head of the fire department
is known, as the chief, and the time
of the fire drills is never known to
anybody but the superintendent or
the store. In this store besides nre
drills after the close of business they
manage to have tests before the open
ing, and also in the course of business
hours, the tests in business hours
being managed somewhat differently
from the others.
Scattered throughout this store there
are hundreds of telephones all connect
ing with the desk of the superlnten-
dent;. there is no place in the store
where one is not within fifty feet of
telephone. Certain specified en-
ployes on the several floors are en-
powered to send in a fire alarm II
there should be occasion for one, and
this alarm is sent by a password which
is always the same, but which is not
the word fire. If the word fire were
used customers within hearing might
be alarmed The fire signal is given
on a bell that is used for indicating
the opening and the closing Of the store
and the hours for luncheon.
In case of a surprise test fire drill
here in business hours the members of
the store fire brigade are required to
move through the store in such man
the employees stairways they may
move as rapidly as they can; and men
on fire drill duty can commander
elevators: and in this way they man
age to have fire drills in business
hours as we'll as before and after the
opening.
Here, at every surprise test drill,
prize of some sort is given TO the first
man arriving at the station indicated;
ink Of a month
so the fire brigade is assembled for
little lecture on its duties, commonly
delivered by the superintendent, this
talk being more especially designed
for such new members as may have
more lately Joined the force.
In some smaller cities and towns,
where fire alarms are infrequent. sur
prise tests are made of the fire de-
partment, to keep the men up to their
duties, and to see that the apparatus
is fit and ready. Here, where 5000
fire alarms are sounded in the course
of a year, such tests are not required:
though nobody could tell whether an
alarm was not a surprise test, sound
ed by the commissioner or the chief
at the next corner. But surprise tests
are not needed here, for actual alarms,
real tests, are liable to come, as they
do, at any minute of the day or night,
and men, nOISeS anu apparatus al Z
always ready.
Fire drills are held once a week in
the various public institutions on
BlackwelPs, Randall's and Wards Is
lands, these drills being held under the
supervision of an officer sent from the
New York fire department. And fire
drills are held in theaters, in breweries
and on wharves. and fire drills with
surprise tests are held in hospitals.
At Bellevue. Hospital surprise tests
fire drills are made at least twice a
week; and these tests, which are made
under the direction of Supt. Richard,
are made at all hours of the day and
night. They may be made at o'clock
in the afternoon, or at l O'Clock in the
morning or at any hour and they are
always surprise tests.
And 1t is a curious and interesting
fact that these drills do not alarm
the patients-they are so frequent.
Some patient may say when the sig
nal Is sounded. There's the fire drill, :"
but that is all, and it seems not i'm
probable that this situation might
prove of real helpfuiness in case Of an
THE Bellevue fire brigade, whose head
Ia STYLED the chief and who has fore
man under him, is made up not or
orderlies, a more or less shifting COM
munlty, out OF men permanently eiii-
ploved in the hospital and this force
has been thoroughly drilled in its du
ties. At the sound of the fire signal
in Bellevue, everybody In the institu-
tion, surgeons, nurses, orderlies, eX-
cepting only those engaged at the
moment on a capital operation, takes
his post, wherever II may be, In the
hospital. and the men of the fire bril-
gade drop whatever they are doing and
make for the ward from which the
alarm was sounded.
These men carry all the apparatus
used in such service. axes and hooks
and fire extinguishers. and they car
nv here in addition one thing not COM
monty included in fire equipment,
namely, stretchers. These are carried
by one section of the men, for the re-
nioval Of the sick. If needed.
The men selected to form the Belle
vue FIRE brigade get more pay than
the men Of the same rank not at
tached to IT, and men desire to join
II for that reason. and the men be-
longing to It have, besides, a proper
pride IN the organization and It's
readiness and efficiency.
And SO In many places and In many
WAYS are surprise tests made, 70
make and keep men ready to act
when called up in an emergency.
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