Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-07-06

Nothing to Dol but Put in Time
81 a Tedious
Foo nth.
CHIEF MOORE. FEARED
i PlPE-THALM ING TROUBLE
combustible Bureau Records
+ Showing Dansse r Reduction
Within F esW Years.

It was a4tedlous o urth of July for
Fire Chief Paul j. Moore and his
men. for while every o. ne had to be on
duty and ou the ale ri to respond to
the bell, there was n othing for the
1iremen to do. That. is, nothing to
speak Of It was "w. u Sc than work
ing this watching d waiting for
something to happen that wouldn I
and didn't. as a fire Fl & inter- put 1t.
The men wese given q rest and the
horses had har 1ly what might be call
ed an exercise gallop. The records
show but three fires, b ut 1t IS a mis-
homer to call them spAch F'iremen
don't allude TO them ais fires at all
events.
one call was from station twenty
eight. 1t came in at 6.4ti o'clock in
the evening An AUTOMOBILE in the
roadway in Elizabeth avenue became
overheated for one reason or another,
and cooled off ON its own account
without any assistance on itl1e part OF
the firemen.
sparkier was thrown on the roof of
the Fewsmith Memorial Pre- sbyterian
Church and spectator pH lled pox
72I. A citizen threw a cup Of water
on the sparkler and that stn pped Its
splitting.
Some daring individual talk ing adj
vantage OIL the QdIktA6So5 t~'7e'~N- =
lighted cigar stump in s1nstH pie
in XVaverly avenue and took it on the
run before the engines responding to
box 231 arrived There was no fire.
ibis happened at 1885 o'clock
Under department regulations every
officer and member of the flre depart
ment. whether on vacations or other-
wise, unless incapacitated for DUTY,
must be on deck on July A.
Inlra
when spoken to about II O'Clock
Saturday night as to now Things we're
going or whether he looked Tor any
dres. Chief Moore smiled and replAsd:
Not unless some thoughtless per
son attempts to thaw out pipes
The evolution from a noisy, DEATH
dealing Fourth of July celebration IN
this city to this years clean recort'
has been gradual. the officials being
lust a step ahead of public opinion
year by year. The bureau OF com
bustibles was created by the Board
OF Fire Commissioners in March, 1907, 4
and this new branch of the city gov l
eminent Immediately assumed con-
troll over the entire fireworks s1tua-
tion in this city This was p s
there was any cRcerted action iooK-
ing toward a safe and sane eeieora-
ton.
A License Required.
The very first action Of the bureau
Z, was to declare that any one selling
fireworks either at wholesale or re-
tail must procure a license from the
bureau of combustibles. At that
time. Wilkinson, Gaddis & Co. were
the leading Wholesale dealers, and I
they secured fireworks permit No. l. |
All told. 1896 permits were issued in |
that first year and with every permit |
went a lot of regulations, which de- |
gslared that no stands would be al |
lowed outside of any building, that |
water had to be kept handy and that |
sales were pot permitted until the |
-lrst four days of July.
Blank cartridge pistols were pro- |
hibited absolutely in 1907, and notice
was served on dealers that the fol- |
lowing year blank cartridges would |
be prohibited This was to give deal |
ers an opportunity of disposing OF |
their stock without financial loss to
them. In that year the records |
showed severfy-two accidents and |
seven fires due to fireworks.
And then from year to year the re-
strictions were made more and more |
rigid The size of cannon crackers
was twice reduced and then these |
crackers were eliminated altogether. |
After that it was a simple matter to
prohibit firecrackers of any kind.
In 1910 notice was served that can
non and other firearms would not be
again permitted on the Fourth of
july in Newark and this order has
been in effect ever since.
From the records in the City Hall
at fire headquarters these figures have
been secured: