Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-06-03
FIRE CHIEF SLOAN
SUMS UP ETHICS
y OF HIS BUSINESS
It's the Seconds That Count at
Start, Says New Com
mander.
TELLS STORY OF SOME
MIGHTY CLOSE CALLS
Got First Test of Nerve as
Boy of 10 at An
tietam.

SSNOl4us Oh Lle start tDat
COUNT
u is the way the new chief of the
Newark fire department, Joseph Z.
Sioan' summed w for a STAR reporter
today the law and gospel of success.
fni frc-fighting. He sat in his com-
portable office chair, speaking simply
II quietly Of the fires he had seen,
In untechnical language, without any
attempt 10 throw the glow of thrilling
romance and breathless adventure int
ms narrative. But he eonjured forth
real pictures OF real hres-the sullen
Sleam OF the flames, the impenetrable
pail of smoke, the crash of falling
Walls The stunning thunder of the ex.
picslon' and the more common and
no less thrilling incident of the fire.
ishter creeping through the smoke
clouds OF % burning building. stitied,
ciloked n lost.
renieinber particularly one fire
when was battalion chief. II was al
d leather factory. They keep the hot
N9 CT bOllAtllllllk over
-0o degrees and the lire started there.
Leading up to the third floor was an
ohtslde stairway with g rail- remem-
bei that rail-.
Well, / went up there to see what
the .hfe was. The smoke was bad-it
always is. But the fumes and .as
from the finishing varnish were strong
enough to cut away the insides of one.
Inc hre was in the real of the build
ING, SO ! crept around, feeling the
walls.
THE smoke is a terrible thing. You
get In the acrid. pungent, Sitting at
mosphere of a burning building and
yon wonder whether you'll get out
again. If this room was filed with
smoke you might come in that door
take a step or two around the room
and not be able TO find the door again.
And then, the fireman never knows
just how much smoke he can stand be-
fore collapsing.
A Tough Fight with smoke.
Il was almost overcome in that
leather factory. and ! said: Sloan. you
ant stand this much longer. You'd
better get out It's pretty misty how
/ crawled through that smoke and
found the door opening on the stairway
again. What ] remember is stumbling
upon the rail-if, L hadn't. struck 1t ]
would have pitched right off the plat
form.
Il got my arm around that rail
somehow and started to slide. The
ooyS picked me up at the bottom and
opened my rubber coat to give me air.
! soon came around all right. But the
opening Of my coat on such a bitter
night gave me a terrible attack OF
pleurisy.
I'm not much in sympathy with
spectacular ways OF hre-fighting. In
fact, ! can't see the sentimental part
of 1t. It's a case of cold facts-you
have a certain fire to combat, you
must adapt your method to suit tho
emergency, and a freman's life is seri-
ousr-terribly serious.
"But / don't believe in taking risks
with my men. What is a building COM
lared with a life. Property saving
should not. be compared for a moment
with the saving of life.
There was a little blow-up in South
Orange avenue about a veal and a
half ago 1t was a candy store, I think.
Anyway If we had got there a few
minutes before there would have been
work for the hospital. ! a tell you.
1.-THE building literally blew to pieces.
There was such a created that
no one could have lived in it. The ex-
plosion sdrove every bit of air out of
the street, and the windows all along
were sucked right out.
"'Great Scott / said when ! got
there on the first alarm, this fire Is
going some 1t was all ablaze. l
sounded a second alabcl which brought
Chief Ashley. 1t vas merely a struggle
to confine it. Three or four houses on
Stirling street caught, but We saved
them.
Some Good Work by the "Boys.'
I've seer some good work lone by
recommended. There was a fire at the
building of Reilly & K~lotz-they made
bric-a-brac, I think. Chief Morgan and
Lieutenant Herman, of Engine No. l,
each brought a man out. who would
have stayed there otherwise. / know
Morgan got in the building and found
his man back on the ground floor after
cropping through the smoke. He just
managed to drag him to the front win
dow and called me to send a man to
him. Herman did the same.
we were working about three Or
-four days on the Ballantine malt house.
7 was captain of 3 at that time.
W. iat ,n,, r,otna afar- and tbpn went