The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-05-21
FIRE DRIVERS JOB ONE OF GROWING PERIL
Accidents Apparatus Frequency the C Satisfactorily Cars
thu Caweo Of MANY Fire First Rule.
PERIL

which the engine is brodn1 down.
No time is lost on these cases. There
Is always Just that slim chance, . YER upper
most in the mind of fireman. that Ne"
YORK NAV be threa tened the next minute
with a contiagration needing every engine
in the service When they get signal IN
the repair shops the emergency crew leap
on to the repair wagon with the same a!acrity
as the regular frere2 swing on to their
tender. And they take with them duplicate
wheels and springs for the disabled engine,
and make repairs on the spot
In the repair department they Keep the
life history of piece of fire apparatus,
from the time it begins going to fires urtil
it is retired for old age. Every piece when
it is bought gets register number. L is
known by I Eat number ever aiterward to
the repair department.
Let it lose wheel or break a spring. and
the accident goes down as part of its BIZ
ography. Every time it is tran sferred is
likewise included. so that the doctors of
the repair shop know at all times Just what
their patients have been through, what
they can stand, and where they are.
They are Interesting records Some OF
them tell Of the wanderings OF engines for
more THAI thirty years, engines famous in
their day, that began life downtown where
the fires were frequent and the work was
hardest, for machines as we'll as men, and
then in the lapse of years moved gradually
uptown, getting easier berths each time until
they arc now enjoying the rural solitudes
Vi tuc upper = out OIItf u
week or so Some Of these old machines
have been pounded almost to pieces and
then patched up again.
The life OF an engine or truck depends
upon the locality where it is stationed.
1t is not more dozen years if that be
the East Side, where the runs and the ac-
cidents frequent. Engine II in Ludlow
street often has five runs day and some
times more.
At such rate an engine boiler gives out
n n n ifo 9th "
Cay its body is Of steel
The flremen are fond OF the engines and
the trucks and the tenders that they ride
on in these headlopg dashes over the car
tracks and around corners on the way to
the Are. The nearest engine to a fire is
expected to get the first stream on that
fire 1t is counted the greatest glory Of
a company to beat the nearest engine and
get, as the hremen call i. first water;
1t rebounds to the credit of the whole
company and the men will never tire telling
about it.
The greatest credit. of course. belongs
to the driver, for he must put the three
horse to their creates, hsPsebb and md must psnd
and the skill that has come with years of
experience.
1t ia no racecourse along which he must
take his horses. He never knows when
crossing or when careless motorman's
car may loom up ahead and he must run
full tilt into that immovahle something
that will stop the flying engine at the risk
Of death, perhaps. to the horses and the
men and Of the wreck Of the big machine.
That Is why this feat of getting there
first stands for so much. The department
encourages the competition, for time Is
everything in fire fighting and the greater
the speed the less the time wasted.
As New York fills up with more and
more people AMI to the surface cars are
added the automobiles almost as big AMI
swifter in their movements the task OF the
fire driver becomes more difficult. it
is n, won Ter that there are more ACCT
dents now than there used to be. 1t is the
result Of the increasing difficulties OF the
job.