The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-10-20
FIRE DEPARTMENT
 MAKES FAST TIME
RECORDS SHOW THAT THEY GET OUT OF THE HOUSE ON AN AVERAGE OF ELEVEN SECONDS. SOME FAST TRIPS.

People frequently complain of the slow ness of a fire department in reaching a fire. but they rarely praise It for prompt and successful work. Most frequently it is said the complaints are without foundation, and they are from persons not familiary with the workings of fire department.
 Just as matter of information, a num- Der of records of the time it requires for the fire apparatus stationed at head quarters to "get out have been kept, and the facts and figures are interesting.
 On an average it requires about eleven seconds for the firemen to hitch the horses, throw open the doors and start | out of the house. This time Is reckoned from the moment that the gong In each | of the stations sounds when an alarm Is sent in either by telephone, or over one | of the boxes. Few people would believe that the department gets out in this length of time, unless they make an att tempt to get to fire station before the apparatus gets out. The average man 1 standing in front of the Hotel IIillman ] cannot reach headquarters, less than block away, before the fire department starts out of the doors.
 Night makes little difference, as the | firemen can pull on their boots and drop down the rod in from to 13 seconds, and if the horses come under the harness all right, it is never over 15 seconds be- fore the first piece of apparatus is clang Ing up the street.
 | An average run of seven, eight or even ten blocks is made in something under | three minutes. Naturally the longer the run the greater the time, in proportion. A man standing at the Opera House hotel Tuesday stated that the fire department was on hand in a few seconds under two minutes after the alarm was sent in. The fire did little damage.
 It requires about five minutes to get ev- cry piece of apparatus in the city to a central point Chief Mullin can arrive at the fire and in a minute he can size up the situation, and If all the apparatus is needed, In less than five minutes he can have every piece of apparatus in the city at the fire. Some of the stations are l city.
 The best time in which the fire depart ment has ever gotten out of the house" was g seconds.
 ------~----------------- $100 In paving the thoroughfare-certain not in my neghborhood anyway.
 "I ask of you, as a property owner to give us a chert pavemeht-but I will add that I am perfectely willing to abide by the decision of the majority. l am deeply interested in this matter and came up from Montgomery this afternoon to attend this meeting and will return there early tomorrow morning.
 Coming up on the train this afternoon I engaged in conversation with gen. tleman whom I afterwards learned was an old lumber man. It developed during the course of the conversation that he had filled several large European con tracts for furnishing wooden blocks for paving. He said that these contracts called for red gum exclusively, and that he had shipped no pine. He declared that he quit the business because there was no money in the red gum block bus mess That is the kind of blocks Paris, London and Berlin are probably using. l asked him would our pine be suitable for paving, and he replied certainly not and explained why"
 Plenty of Red Gum.
 John L. Raul interrupted the speaker | by consent. MT. Raul said that this country was almost over-burdened with red gum, and that 1t can be produced cheaper than long leaf yellow pine, as called for in the Highland avenue spec | ifications.
 Continuing, MT. Tillman said that 1t was only matter of the difference of opin- ion between two lumber men with ref | erence to red gum and pine. MT. Till | man declared that wooden blocks were | an experiment in the south and that bituminous macadam was the best of the two. He said that he had rather pay E. per yard for chert than g for wooden blocks. He suggested that the experi- | ment should be made on some short street, saying that he would be willing to pay his pro rata share for the exper- | imenting.
 Mir. London Talks.
 Alex T. London asked what pavement was not an experiment? He said thai I macadam had been used on Fifth avenue and 1t did not prove successful. He said that the city of St. Louis would not al low any macadam street to be laid This is because 1t cannot be cleaned ant the cost of maintaining 1t is too much I did not see any red gum in London but I did see Norwegian and yellow pint used in the paving of the streets of tha city" declared MT. London. Washing ton avenue in St. Louis is paved witf wooden blocks and 1t is a beautiful thor oughfare In my opinion chert Is tn, worst and wooden blocks is the best ma terial in the world
 MT. London told of the Birmingham Realty company expending the sum oi s6O,0OO in improving Highland avenue. bJ grading and macadamizing it.
 Colonel Bush-"What did you say yot used in paving the avenue?"
 MT. London-"Chert, but you see W, were only experimenting"
 MT. Bradshaw.
 Caldwell Bradshaw said that he was al a disadvantage inasmuch as he had no visited London, Berlin or Paris He said however, that he recalled the fact tha the town of the Highlands, about 1892 paved Highland avenue with chert from Twentieth street to point beyond Beuns vista station. ITO my certain knowledg, but little has been done in the matter O. having the thoroughfare since that time , Chert is no experiment along Highland avenue. I am against paving the avenu, now with either bituminous, macadam O 1 wooden blocks. What we want Is goot | chert I do not mean red mud, as we gen ] orally get over there
 T am protesting against paving tn