The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-28
RAPS MOBILE
 FIRE SYSTEM Chief Browder Talks of Investigation. CONDITIONS UNSATISFACTORY Worse Than in Any Other City of
 Its Sire. EAe rsree of Me. !. Entire city Less TAa. tAe Sunser ss Mentse~-
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..The fire service of Mobile is poorer than that of any other city of Its size in the country."s 2 ..sst i.
 Such is the emphatic opinion of Chief Browder of the Fire Department of Montgomery, who spent Monday and tuesday in Mobile. thoroughly in- yestiRating it's fire fighting force and service at the request of the Cnamoer Of Commerce of that Ncity.
 '.The apparatus is for the most part snadeqnate and antequated, and the force utterly inefficient to cope with the danger of fire in so large munic-t fpaIity as Mobile." he said last even- ing What other criticisms he will have regarding the department, he Is unwilling to make public until after he shaii file the report that the Cham Der of Commerce has requested 2 of him. aa 7
 'The force in Mobile." continued MT. Browder, numbers only thirty-seven men. Mobile purports to be Q larger city than Montgomery and yet we have sixty-ive men here, nearly twice as many. How. inferior their service Is may be judged from the fact that they have fewer men In the entire service than we have for the down town or commercial district. To this one sec tfon of Montgomery there are forty two men assigned. Another example of the inadequacy on the force is found in their hose company which numbers only four men. One of these men is or for twelve consecutive hours every week. That leaves only three men on duty for forty-eight hours every, seven days. Detract from this the hours that each. must take For the meals and you will see that at times there are only one or two men to drive the hose wagon to the dre and manipulate the hose. 2
 The same unsatisfactory conditions exist regarding the apparatus. For instance. Mobile has only two steam CTS. We And that we need five up here, and of the most modern type. Mobile has simply grown away from its fire department. Recently. how ever. the city ordered combination truck. that carires 1000 feet of hose and forty gallons of chemicals. Dur ing the last big fire their new aerial truck was smashed and all they have left is an old style hook and ladder truck that does not compare favor ably with a similar one in our de- pertinent which we use only in ex- treme emergency. We have In addi- ton . sixty-five foot aerieI truck and an improved city truck.
 "Am additional apbropriatione of at least sI5.o00 should be made by the Mobile authorities to give the city anything like an efficient fire fighting force and apparatus. They need at the lowest estimate ten more men The expense for these will be about $500, leaving a similar amount for the purchase of new apparatus and the maintenance of che present equip ment. s<
 "The. personneI of the present force fG exeellenf They. have a vary a hIa man for the head of the department The cause for the deterioration of the service is due to the lack of adequate appropriation, and neglect ofr the city authorities"
 Chief BrowdeE's report will be for warded to- the Chamber of Commerce in Mobile within the next week