The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-11-21
FIRE LADD|ES ARE'
 EXCEEDINGLY WEARY
Have Answered 60 Alarms
 in 4S Hours
CONTINUOUSLY ON GO
None of Fires of Serious Conseauence Armes Residence Is Damaged.
 Chief Middleton Compliments
 Men for Untiring Work

The fire fighters of Greater Birmingham are weary lot. During the last 4s hours they have answered GO alarms at all hours of the night and day and in freezing weather.
 At o'clock last night the stations in | old Birmingham had answered 2s alarms since s:45 yesterday morning. with good prospects of the number being increased before morning. The suburban stations aisc have been busy and not a fire laddie in the city last night but was wearily wishing for warmer weather.
 There were two fires yesterday of con sequence. The residence of Edmund c. Armes, 1i10 St. Charles street. was badly damaged by a fire which originated on the roof. The damage was estimated last night at s15O0 by Chief Middleton. The firemen had a hard fight on account of lack of water pressure. and it was not until gasoline pump went into action that the blaze was quenched. There was not enough pressure to throw a stream to the top of the roof" said Chief Middle ton in speaking of the blaze, and this accounts for the loss on the Armes home and the damage to the residence of Carl Brown. next door, which was small"
 Fire at the residence of C. B. Glenn, as- sistant superintendent of public schools 90s Thirteenth street, south. caused dam age estimated at s200 While on the roof R. R. Ramey of No. station slipped and fell to the ground, a distance of 20 feet lie was painfully but not seriously in- jured.
 The remainder of the fires yesterday caused small damage. They were caused principally by sparks on the roof hot ashes in wooden receptacles and defective fues
 Chief Middleton was a tired man last night when a reporter caught him just as he was going home to snatch a few minutes rest between alarms.
 This is worse than I ever knew it to be before in my 20 years of firefighting, '' he said, and added philosophically. we always catch it when there is a sudden cold snap and l guess it's only our due But it sure has kept us on the go. haven't had two hours continuous sleep in two nights and days.
 ''In the past 4S hours the department 'over the entire city has answered over 60 alarms. We have been fortunate in checking the spread of the flames and none of the fires has reached any great proportions. However, we have had sev- eral narrow escapes. That fire in the Hood building Thursday night looked bad for a few minutes, and if it had gotten away it would have done considerable damage.
 "I want to compliment my boys on their work during this trying time The alarms have been coming in almost con- tinuously since the cold weather began but they have responded to all demands made upon them and have worked effi- ciently and without complaint, no mat ter if they were almost ready to drop with fatigue. have heard considerable commendation of the work of the laddies at fires at which I was not present and am proud to know they have done so we'll"
 Asked how he was standing it. Chief Middleton smiled and said he guessed he was getting along all right, although he was pretty tired.
 Just to illustrate to you how busy we've been,' he said, ''Ill tell you a little incident that happened tonight There was an alarm from Seventeenth avenue and Twenty-first street, south. and I an swered it with the department. After ex- tinguishing the blaze I started back to town and saw No. cross the street in front of me and followed them to a fire at Magnolia avenue and Twenty third street. While I was there I was told that Northsde had gone out to a fire over there and hustled across the city. That g tile way IL nus been.
 Thursday night after being hard at work all day I went home and went to bed about 8 o'clock. I hadn't gotten to sleep before the bell rang and after that was on the go continuously. However, don't get the idea that I am complaining. I'm not. Fighting fires is what a fireman is paid for and am ready at any time for any that come along" Chief Middleton yesterday received a letter from Prentiss B. Reed, mana ger of the Southern Fire Adjusters' bu- reau, complimenting him on the work of the department. The letter follows:
 "The writer yesterday inspected the premises of MT Harold R. Samson, 1921 Niazuma avenue. and for the first time
 in his experience is addressing a fire chief a letter complimenting him on the work of handling a fire
 The property shows quite plainly that the hose streams were carried directly to the seat of the blaze, and that it was fought from the inside Sd that the water, after doing it's work on the flames, fell outsi1e, thus extin gushing the fire with minimum amount of water damage A continu- ous record of careful work like this will do more toward reverspg the hith erto bad fire record of Birmin gham than any other factor over which the city has control.
 'Wishing you continued success ir yourAcfforts, l am yours very truly, "DRE.NrrISS R REED'