The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1905-09-27
FIRE ENGINES ARE TO GO
The Prediction of Chicago's For
mer Fire Chief.

Separate Pumping stations and
Water Mains with Which to Fight
Flames, Says william ii. Musham.
Success of Sprinkling System.
within fifteen years there probably
will not be a fire engine in service in
the United States. The method of fire
fighting is being revOlutiOniZed, and
the big, cumbersome fire engine will
soon be relegated to the scrap heap
The foregoing is the prediction of
W. II. Musham, former fire chief,
while recently attending the annual
convention of the National Firemen' 5
association in Kansas City Mr.. Mu-
sham was chief Of the Chicago fire de-
partment for four years and first as
sistant chief of that department for
seventeen years. He was let out of the
department last October for political
reasons after being in the fire service
for thirty years, says the Kansas City
Star.
I'm the future fires will be fought by
hose companies" said Mr.. Musham.
THE best fire fighters in the United
States have come to realize they can
not depend on the fire engine for the
protection of property interests from
fire.
THE change which is under way now
is this: The big cities are preparing to
install separate pumping stations for
fee service whereby a high pressure
supply can be instantly obtained in
case Of fires and maintained for any
length of time. What the cities will do
| and must do is to lay separate fire
mains and legislate to force owners of
big buildings and factory plants to in
stall water mains within the buildings
With high water pressure hose compa-
MES which can reach fires in almost
half the time that fire engine can are
able to do better work and get quicker
results. The hook and ladder compa-
MES, of course, will always be in serv-
ice, and for reserve purposes the water
towers will be utilized. But who can
stop fires with water towers? The Sc
cret of successful fire fighting is to get
at the flame from within the building,
and this is why the light hose compa
MES, quick in action, are to become
chief reliance of the fire departments.
Fire engines were never a success.
They are too heavy, bulky and slow in
action. They often fail to throw a
strong stream Of water, and the failure
has never been more noticeable than
in the history Of Chicago Many large
fires in my city could have been pre-
vented had we had hose companies
which could have arrived at the scene
of the fire in time to check the flames.
There is no city in the United
States which has more rapid progress
in this movement than Kansas City.
Here you have the high water pressure
without the separate water system, it
is true-and twenty-one hose compa-
MES / am told that the few engines
in service are becoming rusty. You
don't need them, for your hose compa-
MES prevent fires of consequence. In
the future the aim of fire chiefs will be
toward preventing fires by quick action
and not by extinguishing them after
great loss of property or life.
There are few new devices for fire
fighting excepting some patent The
newest feature is the sprinkling sys-
TEN. which has been generally adopted
and is a success. The device has been
the means of preventing many large
fires"
7, Korea now knows what the innocent