The Hawaiian gazette., 1910-10-14
ASSISTANT FIRE
CHIEF is BACK
Syracuse Convention
and Boosted for Good Old
Honolulu.
AEON Thnrgday 3 Advertiser.l

AENouA AuuAeNhy AuRtEtA3tAsy
Primed with experiences encountered
from one end Of the continent to the
other, Assistant Fire Chief Augustus
Deering returned yesterday on the
transport sherman. He win take up
his duties at the central fire station at
once.
Deering was the unofficial representa-
tive of Honolulu at the annual eonven.
ton of the international Association Of
Fire Engineers, and says that he was
the center of attraction during all the
sessions Lest his modesty be ques
toned, it might be added that if he
didn I say so it would leak out anyway
from the clippings from the Syracuse
papers which he brought home.
Syracuse is city Of 175,000 persons,
but towards the end of the convention
the hotel, Accommodations were not suf-
Nfcient to provide for the galaxy Of fire
department heads who assembled The
first day of the convention there were
four hundred fire chiefs registered and
towards the end there were nearer six
hundred.
The opening Of the convention was
greeted in the newspapers with four.
column heads, directly beneath it in
large type, being blazoned the legend:
" Honolulu is represented by a former
Brooklyn man-August Deering declares
city he represents keeps abreast of the
times in matter of modern fire-fghting
apparatus.' From that day on Deer
ing was the belle of the ball.
He stated last night, sitting in Chief
Thurston Is office, that the country's fire
chiefs considered Honolulu as built al
most entirely of, grass huts, coupled
with which was the vague impression
that the fire departments consisted Of
several bucket brigadess
ii. P. Wood of the promotion. commit
tee owes Qeering a vote Of thanks.
With chiefs from Paris and Dublin and
four or five from Canada in attendance,
the newspapers devoted majority Of
their space to Deering. His addresses
were reprinted in full.
1t was the first time in the history
of the association that Honolulu was
represented in the convention, and
Deering almost landed the next conven-
tion for Honolulu. Milwaukee was the
first named (and afterwards chosen),
and when uncertainty became apparent
Deering, according to the Post4Stand-
ard, arose and spake thusly:
"lf you will come to Honolulu I can
assure you the best time you ever had
in your lives, and l will show you a
fire that will battle all your efforts
That is the famous crater of Kilauea.n
And the reporter spelt Kilauea right,
tool
When the vote was taken there were
only three cities figured. They were:
Milwaukee, 1873; Toledo, 10, and Homo
lulu, s. Newspapers thought this Of
momentous enough Importance to give
headline space, too. If Deering don It
get a medal from the p G. somebody
is remiss in his duties.
The next president of the association
will be Fire Chief John Thompson Of
Toronto, other officers being Chief Lar
kin of Dayton, Chief McFall of Ro-
anoke, Chief Magee of Dallas and Chief
Loller of Youngstown.
Deering has a lot of good ones to
tell on the fire chiefs. False alarms were
the rage while the association was in
convention and the Syracuse depart
ment made a splendid showing as it
turned out to them, although it had no
opportunity to distinguish itself. One
real alarm was finally turned in, how
ever, and the department was chary in
answering it, thinking it was another
joke, but chemical engine finally APP
peared on the scene and put the small
blaze out.
Deering spent some time in New York
and several days in Philadelphia, and
one each in Chicago and st. Louis The
fire chief of San Antonio, Texas, was his
host during a short stay there and he
ended his transcontinental trip by re-
newing old acquaintance in Los An.
geles.
He arrived in Los Angeles, Friday,
September 80, and making a date with
Chief Ely. of that city laid further
plans to call on Churchill Harvey Elder
whom he knew well in Honolulu. On
October ! Elder was dead amidst the
blood and ruin of that appalling tragedy
without knowing that his old friend,
whom he had invited to meet him when
he came to Los Angeles, was in the
city. Last night in The Advertiser Of
flee, Deeriag pointed out the place
where he had last seen the illfated as
sistant editor Of the stricken newspaper.
The next day, of course, Chief Ely
was the busiest man on the continent.
Deering was unable to get within two
blocks OF the doomed building around
which swifled furious thousands. The
entire city was in blaze of excite
ment with sentiment against the unions
at white heat. Dee1ing stated last
night that he believed the building TO
have been blown up with dynamite.
Saturday evening he left for San
Francisco from which place he took the
transnorf home