The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-18
REYNOLDS PRAISES BENNETT AND MEN Fire Department Equal to
 Any in South CRITICS ANSWERED
Says Any Trained Insurance Man Would Approve Chiefs Method in Fighting the Bell
 el. Motion Fire

In view of certain criticisms which have recently been made of the Birmingham fire department, W. L. Reynolds, vice president of the Southern States Fire and Casualty Insurance company, yesterday wrote to A. B. Andrews of Atlanta, man. ager of the Southeastern Underwriters association, highly commenting the work of Chief Bennett and his men during the recent trying times. MT. Reynolds let ter is as follows:
 Southern States Fire and
 Casualty Insurance Co.,,
 Birmingham, January 17, 1912. MT. A B. Andrews, Manager Southeast
 ern Underwriters Association, Atlanta:
 Dear Sir-I beg to confirm my wire of this date as follows: t
 Chief Bennett advises me in person that he had 15 fires yesterday Suggest that you mention this to Alabama com- mittee.'
 "The writer has today had a conference with W. B. Leedy, the officers of the Interstate Fire Insurance company and other prominent insurance firms here, and they all express themselves as thoroughly satisfied with the results obtained by the Birmingham fire department.
 Admitting that the fire loss has been
 
 1t has not been the fault of the manage ment of the department.
 For the purpose of being specific, wish to say that when the chief was fighting the billiard fire on the South Highlands, which, as the map will show you, Is lo- cated in a range of very valuable resi- dences, the fire of the Cable Piano com pany and the Bell Telephone buildings broke out, and necessarily the department hapdira pnad m of pst1 IL erable portion of the apparatus being away from the center of the city.
 Tn company with President Moulthrop and Adjuster Adams, I have just made d careful inspection of the fire and the evi- dence is so plain that the wall which Chief Bennett had every reason to believe would resist fire. as everybody else did, was nothing more than she'll refer to the Bell Telephone building, the construc- ton of which, above the third floor, was nothing more or less than terra cotta blocks.
 If you will make a close examination ef the block, you will approve, and not only approve but applaud, Chief Bennett 3 tactics in fighting this fire. He had every reason to believe that the Bell Telephone building was perfectly safe. Therefore, he directed his entire efforts to prevent the fire from spreading to the Florence hotel, which he succeeded in doing. Had the fire reached the Florence hotel. the loss woull have exceeded in that block alone Sl,500,000, and beyond that we can only speculate what might have been. It is possible tEat we could have had fire amounting to several million dollars.
 Why any insurance men with any Knowledge of the science of fighting fire should criticise the chief for the fight that he made in this fire, is beyond my understanding
 at"I want to say to you sincerely and open and above board and I am willing to back this statement up with facts, that there is not a department, so far as the personnel of the men is concerned, and especially as to their direction and their training, which Chief Bennett is responsi- ble for, there is none better in the south ern states.
 Think of it, on yesterday his depart nent was up against 15 fires; naturally the men were exhausted, many of them i'll, but still fighting.
 'The fire waste in this city has undoubt- eoly reached an alarming stage, but it is hot the fault of the department, and cer- tainly the fires that have been fought here have been directed by a man that is thoroughly capable, and in my opinion his ability and services have saved the companies many thousands of dollars My reason for making this statement 1 is because l have heard lot of rambling rnmors from various irresponsible par tles, which have had the effect of discour- , aging man who is trying to do his full duty.
 We propose to contradict these ru- mors by telling facts, and any informa- tion we can furnish you will be gladly given, and we will take any amount of trouble Co go into details to prove our opinion so emphatically asserted, of the chief and his department is absolutely correct Yours very truly, w. L. REYNOLDS Vice President Southern States Fire and Casualty Insurance Co.,