Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1917-08-12
Fighting New York s Fires Much
Different Than In Former Times

buildings in their 9ictrict to inspect
their qualifications for resisting fire.
There are certain laws concerning fire
escapes, doors leading to the outside
and the storing of infiammabe goods,
as we'll as very stringent regulations
regarding smoking in garages q - fac-
tories, and it is up to the firemen 70
see that they are complied with. This
inspection serves a double purpose. 1t
not only educates that fireman With re-
srect to the city's requir ements, but it
makes him familiar with the physical
features OF his district He Knows the
exits, trap-doors and stairways of ev-
cry building private residences ex-
cepted of course-he knows where
there are pitfalls that would prove
dangerous at a night fire; he knows
how many occupants are in each build
Ing, anu WHSIS IIlS CASIHlSdl 9pl M
lers and other fire apparatus are To-
Gated.
All of this is very important, for
| fre-fghting is not on unskilled profess
sion, but very scientific one. A fire
| j. a disaster which requires just as
much cool-headed thinking, courage
ard executive ability as a battle, and,
perhaps, even more technical skill. For
example, there is fire in a tenement
house The first response to the alarm
is a hook and ladder company which
finds the building filled with smoke
firm fire which is raging in the cell
! lar. Now the first order of the chief
OF this company, before the ladder APP
paratus has been touched at all, is to
open the scuttle on the roof of the
tenement This allows the fire to go
! up instead of spreading out like a
mushroom and imperiling the buildings
on each side
Or suppose the fire is in one of the
innumerable stores that have side
stairways leading to the apartments
above. Instead of attacking from the
front or back entrance of the store,
the fremen start their frt fighting
from this side hallway, in order that
the fire may be kept from ascending to
the apartments above.
Various factors such as these must
be taken into account. A fire chief
has the lives of his men to think of,
as we'll as the course of the fire, and
his position is not always enviable,
as, for instance, when it is the life of L
trapped child ainst the life of one
CT his lieutenants. So far as courage
IS concerned however, it must be said
with all possible due credit to New
York firemen that they usually do not
have to be urged to endanger their
lives for others. In the fire training
school the recruit is taught how to
save his own life, and he is taught
many other things besides which
would astonish> the average layman.
He must know building construction
and he must learn some special
things about chemicals Some fires
are only made worse by the application
of water and instead must be chemical
ly treated
TO this technique Of fire fighting the
fireman jalso adds his physical
strength, mental agility and courage.
Sometimes life may be saved by the
fraction of a second, so that it is alb
solutely essential Shat the fireman
should act quickly. A few months ago,
for example, Richard Mangels, of
Hook and Ladder Company No. 3, saw
ed the lives of two men by his quick
THINKING and sheer nerve. Scaling
ladders had not been brought to the
scene when Mangels. looking over the
roof of the burning building saw two
men clinging precariously to the top
OF the fifth floor window shutter, i'm
mediately beneath him. Standing on
the coping of the roof the fireman
braced a short wooden ladder found
on the roof against his legs and eX-
tended it out so that it rest
ed against the shutter and wall of
the building. Then with other firemen
holding him, he held the ladder in
this position by main strength long
enough for the rescued men to as
cend to the roof The physical strain
of this lot of endurance was so severe
that the fireman afterwards tainted
and for many days carried the imprint
Of the ladder on his body.
Mangels received a medal of honor
for this act of bravery-a distinction
which is a great incentive to reckless
merit among the firemen There are
thirteen medals of honor distributed