Arizona republican., 1913-05-04
IGNORES CALL
 FUR F|REMEN
Telephone Company Elm pIoycs Refuse to Call the , Fire Department While Blaze Threatens the St. Joseph Hospital

While sisters. nurses and other at taches of St. Joseph's Hospital were fighting a blaze in the kitchen of the institution yesterday afternoon. an- other nurse was vainly endeavoring to secure telephOnic connection with the fire department Unable Ao secure the number of the fire engine house which does not appear upon the cover of the advertising pamphlet and sub scriherS' directory combined. nor under the "F"' classification, the nurse final lv resorted to the eXpedient of calling information and appealing to her to call the fire department.
 Satisfied that this would be done. the nurse having given the infOrma- tion that the institution with it's fifty or more patients was threatened hung mp the receiver and ran to the aid of her associates Five minutes went by and no alarm sounded and no fire department appeared Then another attache of the hospital called information and inquired why the fire department had not been called. According to this young woman, she was informed that it was not the work of the information department To call the fire department or other subscrbers-that the number was in the book
 And all the time the fire was pro- gressing in the kitchen.
 But the efforts of the women of the hospital, who bravely fought back the flames all the time with the thoughts of their helpless charges uppermost in their minds. were fin ally rewarded and the blaze brought under control It was a close call and but for the individual bravery of the women, might have ended more disastrously
 It seems strange said Sister Vincent last evening. that any en- ploye of the telephone company could feel that it was not her duty upon an occasion like that which confront ed the hospital, to lend every aid in their power to secure the fire depart ment There should have been no question about it at all
 Had it been possible for the nurse or in fact anybody else not thor oughly informed in the manner of the makeup of the telephone direct ory. to have quickly found the num- Der, it would not have been so bad Even then, a fire is always an oc- casion for confusion and it should be the moral duty of any person, know ing that an institution where fifty or more helpless souls were in dan ger, to do everything in their power to help at that time.
 We are exceedingly careful about fires in the hospital and it is almost impossible for a serious blaze to originate from any source. But we like to feel confident that in an emergency we can depend upon se- curing the help of the fire depart ment quickly. That emergency arose yesterday, and without any fault whatever of the fire depart ment, we could not get it when we needed it.
 Had the fire gone beyond the con- it back, it is hard to tell just what the result might have been I feel that it was at least a very inhuman attitude for that employe of the tele- phone company to take and I feel too. that the telephone company is ing the telephone number of the fire department most conscpicuOusly upon the front of the book or at least to so classify it that it might readily be found