St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1909-11-10


and one child, without the slightest posi-
biIity of rescue. Had the building been
equipped with fire escapes it's reasonably
safe to assume that not a single lite
would have been lost. The seven who
were burned to death and the two who
met death a more merciful way by falling
could all have made safe descent to the
| street.
Let the work of installing fire escapes
be begun at once, and continued until all
buildings which need them are fully
equipped.
Another fact emphasized by the st.
Tohnsbury fire with it's loss of life is the
astonishing short-sightedness of mankind
in general and the lifelong service in partic-
| ular. The bank building was FIVE stories
in height on its eastern and southern
| sdes-its side and rear-and the fire.
mans ladders, according to the Daily
News report of the fire, did not reach to
| the third story. 1t was while trying to
lower themselves to the ladders that the
two men who were killed met their fate. 1t
| would seem almost like criminal careless
ness, that the fire department should be
so inadequately equipped. Other COM
munities will do well to learn lesson
from St. Johnsbury's terrible experience.
t Burlington News.
Overhead Wires Dangerous.
Overhead wires seriously nterfered
with the work of the iremen at the fear
full holocaust in st. Johnsbury last Satur-
day and presumably prevented the
rescuing of some of the victims. The
matter of removing the dangerous and
unsightly wires from village and city
streets, or the main thoroughfares at
least, is pressing more and more to the
front and is reform that, although
slow. is sure to come Enosburgh
Standard.
General Lessons Of the Fire.
There are several lessons to be learned
from the terrible fire catastrophe in St.
Johnsbury Saturday, in which at least
nine, and perhaps more, lives were lost
lessons to be learned not alone by St.
Johnsbury, but by every other commun-
ity which finds itself under similar con-
ditions. First and foremost of these
lessons, irrespective of the condition of
the fire department, is the matter of
overhead wires. The reports of the |
disaster agree in the conclusion that the
firemen and volunteer rescuers were
greatly hampered in their work of saving
the inmates of the Citizens bank building
and that several of those who persisted |
might have been saved had it not been |
for the mass of wires which lined the |
open sides of the four-storv building. |
The tangled mass prevented the raising
of the ladders which were at the disposal |
of the fire fighters, and many of the i'm
prisoned persons in the upper stories of
the building called in vain for succor. 1t |
seems likely that extention ladders with
mechanical frightening devices might
have been raised in spite of the mass of
wires but it still is certain that the work |
of the firemen would have been impeded |
even then. Granted that the firemen had |
been equipped with the most up-to-date
apparatus in the matter of ladders land |
we are not acquainted with the condi- |
ton OF the St. Johnsbury Department.
they would have yet been woefullv handi- |
capped by the wires. So, therefore, the
lesson to be learned is that overhead |
wires are both nuisance and menace
to life. The only solution is the elimi-
nation of the overhead wires on the |
business streets by stringing them in
underground cables or by taking them
Oft the business streets except where |
absolutely necessary.
Another lesson is the absolute necessity |
for the equipment of fire department |
with fire nets and the proper drill of the |
hremen in the use of the nets. This |
lesson presupposes. of course, that as
&c
have been eliminated, thus enabling the
firemen to use the life nets. If the wires
were still there the life nets would be of
little, or no, value, since the bodies of
those who jumped from the buildings
would be diverted in their fall by striking
the wires and the position of the life nets
could not be shifted rapidly enough to
receive the flying bodies in their new
courses. So the elimination of overhead
wires and the use of life nets are depend
ent upon each other.
third lesson was the apparent made
quacy of the fire escapes on the Citizens
bank building. If we are rightly inform.
ed there was only one fire escape, and
that on the rear of the structure, and so
placed in relation to the elevator shaft
that when the fire leaped up the elevator
shaft it efectually cut off the approach
to the escape. One fire escape, thus
placed, was not enough for a building
which housed from 20 to 80 people in it's
third and fourth stories Do we need
any greater warning than this that the
state of Vermont was exactly right
when it demanded a short time ago that
all public buildings more than
single story high shall be equipped with
Suitable" fire escapes, accessible from
each room of such building above the
first story" unless the States Attorney
shall deem it unnecessary? Without
knowing the sentiment in St. Johnsbury,
we can state authoritatively that owners
of public buildings in several large towns
and cities of Vermont have shirked their
legal and moral duty in this respect until
their action has become shameful and
worthy of no further immunity from the
penalties of the law.
These are few of the lessons which
stand out prominently in the considera-
ton of one of Vermont's worst fire
disasters as regards the number of lives
lost. Whether there are any purely local
lessons to be learned therefrom, St.
Johnsbury people are themselves the
best Judges but those outlined above are
applicable to any town or city as large
as st. Johnsbury.-[ The Barre Times.