The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1911-07-26
FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!

The fire of last week with is prop
erty loss and it's fearful tragedy ought
to. teach Denison lesson. After
every fire there is more or less dis
cussion as to better protection for
Lives and property but the catastro-
|phe of last week was so appalling that
lit would seem that for once the dis
cussion should be followed by defin-
tie action. The state of our city
finances will not perhaps permit any
large expenditure, even for a matter
of such vital concern. 1t is therefore
the duty of the council and of the citi-
zens to propose some plan which will
secure the most adequate protection at
the lowest cost.
If fire is given good fifteen min
utes' start in any frame dwelling in
Denison the total destruction of the
building and it's contents is practical
" certain. When the firemen and the
crowd of neighbors have assembled
there is multitude of brave and will
ing hands. There is no lack of eff
cheney or of physical courage on the
part Of the firemen. This has been
proven at every fire we have had in
Denison. The great problem is, there
fore, to reduce to a minimum the time
between the discovery of the fire and
the presence at the scene of the proper
apparatus.
Let us discuss for moment our
present system of night alarm. 1t
reminds us of that famous quip--
"He went and told the sexton,
And the sexton tolled the bell"
This is the manner in which the
alarm was given last week; someone,
we know not whom, nor how, saw
flames issuing from the hotel build
ing. He fastened to his phone, called
central and gave the alarm of fire,
central called the Oxford cafe and
shouted to the night waiter Mum
Der Fifteen" (the number of the fire
district, the night man did not know
what she meant, thought she had the
wrong number and hung up the re-
ceiver. There was another call and
this time it was explained that there
was a fire, the night man then ran to
the front door of the cafe and whistled
for the nightwatch, the nightWatch
was in the rear of the Saggau build
ing trying to quiet some noisy dogs
which were disturbing the neighbOr-
hood; he responded to the whistle and
fastened to the cafe and was told that
there was a fire; he then ran two
blocks to the city hall and rang the
fire bell. Following these various
steps, it must be seen that at least
ten minutes elapsed between the dis
covery of the fire and the first tap of
the bell. The alarm, sounded between
four and five in the morning, found
all the good firemen asleep and in bed.
We have no doubt but that they re-
sponded to the call just as rapidly as
possible, that they jumped into their
clothes and ran with might and main
to the engine house, but it could not
not have been less than five minutes,
and from the nature of things it was
more probably ten minutes, before
enough firemen were present to man
the apparatus and drag it to the scene
of the fire. There it was found that
the nearest fire plug was three blocks
away and after the hose was layed
and the water turned on, it was found
that the hose was too short for effect
i've work. 1t was therefore probably
thirty minutes, possibly more, from
the discovery of the fire until any
relief could be afforded. By that time
the building and its contents were
doomed, one boy had lost his life, and
all that remained was to save the
nearby buildings.
ASOW IIlo was "1IiOuI SAC AoOAI
of any individual. Each man acted
just as promptly and efficiently as he
knew how. There is no criticism; the
fault is with the system. Had Deni-
son been prepared, twenty minutes of
this time could have been saved, the
bulk of the property could have been
rescued and the human life would not
have been lost.
Criticism is of little value unless
one is prepared to offer some remedy. |
We would, therefore, propose the fol- |
lowing plan, not because we think it
all that Denison should do, but be-
cause it would be inexpensive and may
at least serve as working idea from