The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1912-08-03

rangement could be effected between
the telephone company and the places
where the centrals are located that
would bring around the desired ef-
1ect, then the next and only way
LEFT TO give the alarm with as little
delay as possible is to adopt the sys-
tenn now used by, as l said before,
the town Of Union, where the party
giving the alarm calls up the fire de-
partment and tells them of the fire
and they then call up the water works
by means of either phone or by the
private wire connected to a gong at
the water plant and tell them to send
in the alarm and give them the ward.
The reason for notifying the fire de-
partnient first and having the alarm
sent in afterwards is to enable the
firemen to get their wagon on the
ground before the crowd begins to
gather and run the risk Of running
over some one.
Now the places too small to have
telephone central would not likely
have fire department any way, and
the only places We can deal with is
the towns that have volunteer fire
company. The other places must be
left alone to work out their own
methods as best they can and which
the most effective methods and the
one most employed is by a general
halloing and giving the alarm Of
fire by calling out in a very loud tone
the one awful word fire" This one
word goes farther to stir man to
action than any other, and the man
that can stand idle and hold his
hands when he hears that awful cry
of fire is freak in the way Of man.
hood surely.
Now Mr.. Chairman and fellow fire.
men l might have made this consid-
erably shorter and have answered the
purpose just as we'll ii had only said
the best Non-Fire Alarm System is
the system that each and every fire
department can employ to get them
on the ground the quickest for it is
not in the peculiar system or method
employed If by whistle, bell or other
wise that the alarm is sent in, but
the object is to get the real fire fight
ers on the ground at the earliest time
possible and as l before said it
makes no difference what system or
method is in use for what would suit
best at one place would be found in
effective at others and the kind Of ap-
paratus you are going to use and the
methods used in getting to the fire all
have to be counted on and taking all
into consideration it would be very
hard to say what would be the very
best system for what would suit one
town and one location might not
prove to be the very best in another.
But one system that would suit all
is practice in getting the alarm sent
in and getting the company out not
wait only when you have a fire, but l
really think We should have the alarm
sent in and practice in getting out
and in that way we can detect the
defects in the method employed and
improve on it. If this was done and
the time calculated on each time that
the alarm was sent in from the time
it was first sent in and the time the
company would have been ready to
put a stream Of water on the fire
and studied out you would find that
many Improvements would be made.
1t would be that the real test Of each
system would come, but as it is no
one pays any attention to anything
but getting there and does not know
whether the situation had been sys-
tematically handled or not.
The one great trouble is that these
Viii - dle never tTleO out untll 100
late. and the advantage that you
brothers have in a large town and
cities is that YOU get more practice
and thereby have more system but
do not think that the rest of us envy
one bit of your training for l assure
you that there is not a man in this
hall that would not be perfectly will
ling for you to have all of the prac-
tice and that the only practice that
we OF the smaller towns want is the
practice for the tournament
In conclusion | thank you all for
me in selecting me for this duty and