Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-05-05
AN ARMY OF F|REMEN
Uncle Sans Imposing Batta-
lions of Smoke-Eaters.
COST OF MAINTAINING THEM.
Seventy-0ne Cities Employ Over
Thirty Thousand.
THE VOLUNTEER FIGHTERS
They Still Flourish Even In the Big
Centers-Prolific Causes Of
CONGREGATIONS.
Written FOR The Star.

employ over 10000 laddfes TO protect them
selves against the ravages of the gift OF
| Prometheus?
This is a number equivalent to the pop
ulation Of the ffourishing Tennessee city OF
| Chattanooga, and the annual average cost
| to the cities OF maintaining this care
fully picked army of smoke-eaters Is a few
| thousand over $24,OO0.0O0. The average cost
to each city is the tidy little sum of $40. COO
| approximately.
An analysis OF the figures reveals what
| may be decided surprise to many-that
even in large centers of population the day
of the volunteer firemen is by no means
over. True, they exist under conditions
widely different from those of the days of
historic vamps. but they are with us never
theless, and with a good deal of the glory
and picturesQueness of old still clinging
about them.
Greater New York alone has a force of
volunteers totaling $500. 600 of them run
with the machine" on State Island the
borough of Richmond(. while the rest reap
similar thrilling experience in the borough
OF Queens made up largely Of small towns.
This is in marked contrast with Chicago 8
paltry ffty-three volunteers, Philadelphia
has not volunteer. Boston can boast of
seventy-fve The chief stamping ground
of the volunteers Is Reading Pa, with a
force of $500. 1t has population of only
SO, COO and fire fighters in excess of the old
city of New York, with its millions. What
excitement the inhabitants of the me-
tropolls OF the keystone states Dutch sec
ton must experience when a fire breaks
out for fireman lives in every other one
of its homes!
The Paradise Of Vamps.
Wilmington, Del, is about the size of
Reading, but its vamps number only 1850.
Troy, with some coco noses to Its credit in
1900, speaks boastfully Of its eleven hun
dred volunteers, and Schenectady. which, rs
you know from the song, Is but fourteen
miles distant from the city of cuffs and col
lars, puts its trust at all times in 237 vol
untters. plus &C regulars. Newburgh, fam
GUS because of Benjamin Odelfs residence
there has two regular firemen and 545 vol
unteers, plus &c regulars. Newburgh. fam
mand of the half regiment when 1t comes
a-running calamity In answer to the fire
bells booming.
All told twenty-six of the seventy one
cities put their trust partially in II ,453
volunteer fireighters. That is, all except
Reading, which has no use at all for
regular or uniformed force. And this is
another reason why that city is the para
disc of vampS.
Seventy cities maintain a combined uni
formed force of almost 10000 men. Judg-
Ing from the record of the Fire Zouaves
in the civil war, what power these men,
divided into regiments and modified as
corps would be in time of armed strife!
Is 1t hyperbole to put down that their
deeds of bravery and daring would make
the world forget the marvellous feats of
the self-sacrifcing Japanese In the late
war with Russia? The records of these
fire ladies deeds day after day, year
after year, answer MOI
New York, of course, has the largest
quota of uniformed men-just 1900 on
the rolls on April 1 of this year. Two
thousand and twenty are stationed in the
old city; the remainder in the other three
boroughs.
Chicago comes next with about 14oo.
Boston runs Philadelphia close for third
place, with s13 to the Quakers' $40. ST
Louis with 634. has nineteen less than
Frisco, and the remaining cities with
more than 800 f1remen apiece are Buff
falo, about 600; Detroit, 537, and Greater
Pittsburg, about 575.
Few Fatalities While on Duty.
Nineteen thousand men who leap to
danger whenever the fire gongs sound
and yet, considering the great risks they
run, the fatalities and injuries that be-
fall them in the discharge of duty are
surprisingly few.
Take, for instance, the 1000 odd men OF
old New York city. From year to year the
number of men killed at fires while in dis
charge of their duty averages about four
death rate of two per thousand. Two
years ago there were thirteen deaths all
told, g. death rate of 6.5 per thousand, but
only three resulted from fires. The old
cfty's death rate at present is 1852; two
years ago 1t was slightly higher. In 1903
four men died as the result of injuries sus-
tanned at fires, and eight from natural
causes. The average number of deaths Il
year from all causes is about twelve.
You don't see how 1t is possible for fire.
man to escape injury of some sort in the
course of year. Well, about every fourth
man in old New York is injured more or
less slightly, in a twelve-month. Two years
ago the number of cases of injury was 447
ha hmm 1and
hands SCARED and the like Partial Buffo-
| cation by smoke leads the list of injuries
| Let fireman be careful he knows
| how, he can never be sure that smoke will
| not overcome him before he can finish his
| task.
| Apart from injury by inhalation of smoke
| 1t Is doubtful whether a. body of laymen
| numerically equal to the fremen of Man.
| haitian and the Bronx, would show a record
| of fewer injuries sustained in the course o!
| year. Consider, for moment the ire
| quency of sprained ankles, fingers cut with
| knives, unexpected meetings with oper
doors in the dark, fostering scratches ant
| the like
The number OF men retired as a result O
! disabilities incurred In the line of duty i
| insignificantly small. Two such retirement
| tired for disability In 1902, and none agail
| among the FIVE retired from all service II
1904 for a similar reason.
These figures of the New York depart
1
! forces throughout the country. Why ar
the records OF deaths and injuries so sur
prisingly low? There are several reasons
Why Fatalities Are Few.
The man who dares, with a steady hear
and a cool head. is pretty sure Of survivin
his task, a general rule. This is axiom
attic. Then. too. the sagacity displayed b
the average officer, from assistant forema
up to the chief. robs falling walls an
smoke-hlled buildings Of their prospectiv
prey. Who has not read that battalio
chief, noting the shaky condition of wal
| ordered his men from under 1t and out G
the building at the psychological moment
Or OF another officer restraining his cage
smoke-eaters from rushing into buildin
that his better judgment told him Nigh
| collapse at any moment without O singl
premonitory warning7 And again, of a
oficer-perhaps the chief himself-shrewi
ly extricating some Of his men, caught,
what seemed to laymen's eyes, traps Gun
ntngly laid by Death himself
The book of rules of every fire depart
ment contain rules rigidly enforced on pal
Of fine or dismissal that likewise work I
/ keep down the death and accident lists:
Officers and men will not Except
cases of actual necessity mount or dis
mount from the steps of the apparatus {
the department in front OF the wheel