Los Angeles herald., 1910-08-28
Municipal Affairs
TO ASK $4,000 FOR
FIRE ALARM system
Fire Commissioner Owen viii
Present Request to the
City Council

Fire Commissioner f. v. Owen will
go before the city council Tuesday
and ask that body to find some means
of Rppropriating at least $4,000 to pro-
vide for the new headquarters OF the
| fire alarm bureau in the proposed en-
| gine house in Figueroa street near
Seventh. The budget provides $}Q,-
| 900 for the engine house and 1t is the
! intention to provide quarters in this
! engine house for the fire alarm ana
police signal bureau but no money has
been set aside for the enlargement of
/ the bureau.
Something will have to be done very
soon, in the opinion OF Mr.. owen, who
| is an expert fire alarm man. The
council has provided for 1S9 new sig
! nal boxes for the police and fire de-
partments but Mr.. owen says there is
no way to handle them when they are
| installed, The present system Is now
overloaded and while 1t might be pos
sible to hitch about 25 Of these new
boxes on to the system 1t would bt
! impossible to take care of any more.
The cables are now about up to their
capacity.
Copies of the report made by Mr..
Owen to the fire commission last
Thursday have been made and mailed
to each member Of the council. In this
report Mr.. owen says:
OWENS REPORT
'"The present central office In the
city hall was condemned over five
years ago. as inadequate. Since that
time the city has grown so that what
was inadequate then has become
doubly so, from the standpoint of ca
pacity and efficiency.
"To remedy this condition, it was
proposed to establish a new headquar-
! ronfra1 nfFpa nf SnVnnfh and
Figueroa streets, especially designed
for a central office that would accom-
modate all of the present equipment,
the university system now in course OF
construction, and all extensions and
additions that might become necessary
in the future.
"As the necessity for this new CEN
trail office is SO great, and the facts
not generally known, I am taking the
liberty at this time, of laying before
you some of the reasons that impell
this change.
1T happens that the system in it's
entirety has been passed upon by
competent and painstaking board of
engineers and the results of their in
vestigations have been embodied in
an exhaustive report to the committee
on fire prevention of the national
board of fire underwriters. These en-
gineers spent three months investigat-
their carefully prepared report is en-
titled to consideration.
II desire to quote a small portion
having to do directly with the. matter
in hand. They say on page 33 of the
report:
WELL MAINTAINED
Conclusions: The fire alarm
systems are properly a part of the
fire department, and are we'll main
r
! San Pedro necessarily having a
separate system with it's own GEN.
trail office, but the need of two
systems in the city proper does not
exist. This arrangement will in
Volve the use of two central offices,
re-transmission of many alarms,
much duplication of work, and will
require a larger fire alarm force
than would be needed for a manual
system covering all the contiguous
and closely built up part of the
city. The system now being in
stalled in the university district
! is so radically different in design
that 1t cannot be combined with the
older system now in use, and will
have to be operated independently
as lon gas it is used
1.-The automatic central office
equipment in use in connection
with the older system was consid-
eTeQ Luo engineers Ol TIE ild-
tional board as inadequate five
. years ago, and the automatic re-
peaters and many box circuits are
, overloaded.
The present location of head
quarters is very unsatisfactory;
the city hall Is not of fireproof
construction, is without window
resistance to a serious exposure
fire. Another most undesirable fea-
ture of the present system is the
use of leased wires in telephone
cables for underground circuits.
This is Jectionable, because the
wires are of too small size, requir-
ing the use of two or more on each
side of q circuit, the insulation of
the cables Is paper, which has
: proved less reliable than rubber for
fire alarm service, the wires arc
carried into telephone exchanges
and are frequently tampered with
| by telephone employees, and it in
wolves running fire alarm circuits
inside all kinds of buildings in the
| business district.
On page 81, under recommendations,
the report says:
| THAT fire alarm headquarters be
removed to fireproof building es-
| pecially constructed to reduce as
far as possible all liability of In
terruption OF service.
"That a emi-automatic and man
| ual central office equipment be in
stalled to serve all of the city ex-
| cept Los Angeles harbor, and pro-
vide for all future extensions.
BAD LOCATION
1.-THE report frequently refers to the
headquarters being 'haZardously locat-
| ed to box circuits badly overloaded
and several excessively long and to
the fire alarm system generally as
entirely inadequate The equipment
is found in good condition, and service
good.
Sooner or later a new central head
qcarters must be provided; also an un-
derground cable system. But the CEN
trail headquarters necessarily comes
first, and some provision should be
made Immediately for a start on it.,
because of the extra cost and danger
involved in the present location and
inadequate equipment. From the
standpoint of economy alone, the new
. headquarters is necessary: from the
standpoint of efficiency it is absolute
/ ly needed; from the standpoint of safe
ty to property, public AMI private, 1t