The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-26

of a fireman, as your vocatien?r in
quired.
"In the first place l wanted work lust
at that time and got it with the fire
department he answered AT best. I
thought perhaps 1t would last a couple
OF months, but before / knew it l was
very much Interested in my work and
the fascination of the life appealed to
me so much that | decided I'd Just
stay right along and grow up with
the work. The elsment of chance, of
danger, of peril In the life of a fire.
man is very Fascinating and when I
tell you that I'd rather subdue big
fire than to do anything | know of.
youll understand how attached to my
work l really am"
Just what type Of men make the
most desirable fireinaf?" | interrogated.
"One who knows not the word cow
ardice or fear, said the chief He
must, first of all. be absolutely level
headed Excitement is one of the great
est dra wbacks toward making a good
fireman. A man can't be a good fire.
man who has any thought of personal
safety. He must aot have in his make
up an atom of selfishness. Bravery.
poise, self lf-assertieeness and repose are
also requisites. quick judgment IS
neeucQ as Well y ilft0idl uOeSn l nave
time to think twice. He's got to think
and act on an impulse and that's where
clear. cold Judgment comes into play
lie can't afford to make mistakes, be-
cause he never has a chance to rectify
them. He's got TO be as quick as light :
ming and as fleet as deer in his move
NJ ents and he's got to be reserved ana
reliable at the same time
What is the worst fire you have
ever seen in Birmingham" I asked.
The worst fire that / have ever
fought in Birmingham was the South
ern Bell Telephone company and the
Colby Wall Paper company fire which
occurred just year ago, January Ia
said the chief "Our citizens have never
fully appreciated Just what a terrible
fire that was. 1t took all the strength
of the fire department to keep down
general conflagraticn and it took us
hours to do IL, too. You see, we were
disabled to begin with. Mr.. Mason Dii-
lard's house on the South Highlands
had burned just about an hour before
and most of our apparatus was out
there so when the downtown fire o.
CURED we were up against terrible
proposition. There was so much danger
in the adjoining buildings when the
Colby fire broke out. There was the
Florence hotel adjacent with so much
combustible matter ard the Gable Plano
company spread the flames with greal
rapidity on account of the highly ignit-
ible pianos. sheet music and light wood
which made a difficult battle to over
come and keep the flames under con-
troll
| suggested just at this point that
had always read with much interest
the descriptions of the great fires in New
York Philadelphia and Chicago. where
the good looking firemen dash up tn,
ladder to the tenth or twentieth story
and rescue some lovely young woman
falling in love with the fire laddie. mar
rying him and living happily ever after
ward.
The chiefs brawny face wore AZ
amused expression as his brown eyei
smiled their protest.
"Very romantic on paper but l dare
say most any of the victims would be ex
oused from such an experience. Oh
course in Birmingham we do not have
many experiences like that, because The
town is not congested as to buildings
and so far our skyscrapers have escaped
although we had a close call recently
with the American Trust and Savings
bank
We had spoken of the assets thal
belong to the Birmingham fire depart
ment and SO / deemed 1t not improper
to ask Chief Bennett what were the de
fects in its makeup.
He unhesitatingly told me II was tho
fire alarm system.
did you know, said he interestedly
that Birmingham has fewer fire ALARM
boxes than the city of Meridian, Miss.
and Birmingham Is many times larger
In ALL we have 81 boxes. Only two ol
these are located on the South Highlands
one at Quinlan and Twentieth street, ane
the other at Avenue 1 and Nineteenth
That reduces the fire alarm condition!
to the telephone. 1t has been proven thai
the telephone exchange can be burned
Do you realize what a mighty factor ths
telephone company is to this city? Why
during the time that the Bell company
was out OF business, on account of thu
fire. this whole town was at the mercy
OF runners should a fire have broker
out?"
Another thing the chief Went on I,
say. do you know there isn't one persot
in a hundred whose house Is on fire
who has a grain OF sense left? The,
rush to the telephone ard call FOR th'
fire department. The call is answered
and the person at the other end criei
cut:
MY house Is on fire.,
Expecting the fire department 20 know