Perth Amboy evening news., 1920-04-06
WOODBRIDGE FIRE CHIEF
EXPLAINS CONTROVERSY
By Special corresrondrnr.

April 6-Another
chapter is added today in the Wood
April 8 at Avenel by the following
letter from w. A. Gillian, chief:
woodbridge, N. J., April 5, 1920
EDITOR EVENING NEWS:
will you kindly publish the fol-
lowing In reply to the Avenel Fire
at Woodbridge Junction in your issue
OF April 8.
1 will try and give the details In
connection with fire as near as /
possibly can. In the first place the
Woodbridge Fire Company No. 1
does not look for Any laurels in con-
nection with this fire. The write-up
in the EVENING NEWS of April 2
was not written by the Woodbridge
Fire Company. We, when called out
to n fire, get there as soon as we pos
sibly can, put the fire out and then
return home. make record of same.
put our apparatus In shape for flu
ture use and that is all to it. II Mr..
FELTON, was a true, loyal comrade he
would rave investigated the write-up
to see who did the praising and TAX
Ing credit before going to the press
to censure anyone. However. we Will
let Mr.. FELTON, judge for himself II
he done right in using this method.
However, this is the story as IL
- - "a I1A1NC ~
Woodbridge Junction called me up
at my home, saying that u fire was
near their place and thought that
the oil line was leaking and looked
very bad. 1 replied that we would
come at once; we went on a silent
alarm. On arriving there, which was
1920. / found that we would need
more hose and more men. / imme-
diately put an alarm call for more
men. At this time no fire company
of any kind was in sight. The Port
Reading company engine stood
across the way. After a while they
returned to the yards and came back,
put out a line of hose. putting the
fire out between the bridges, finally
reaching the trolley bridge.
The Avenel company came along
by his time and when they arrived
at the junction someone asked how
they would get down there. / told
them to go down the rack. Their
equipment consisted of a jumper with
two chemical tanks about fifty gall
lons each. After arriving at the
bridge they worked their chemical
hose from the top of the trestle. You
can imagine how much chemical was
wasted in working from the top of a
fire when the under part of ties
was burning. During this time we
secured n of the trolley cars which
was standing at the junction n at
tached the hose to same. They start
ed down the track very slow OH ac-
count of the connection catching in
the ties.
/ ran down to the bridge. When /
arrived there / asked the men if they
would move their jumper to one side
so the trolley could get near the
bridge. They moved the jumper,
saying nothing then. / do not know
If their tanks were empty or not. but
the pressure was very low. Neverthe-
less we moved our hose up to the
bridge. The order was passed to the
engineer to put the pressure on.
When the water first appeared the
pressure was light blu finally 1t went
to $50. / had three men on end or
hose. 1 instructed them TO play on
the lower part of the bridge. The
Port Reading men were then moving
their hose. The pressure was In
| creasing up to $50 pounds. l heard
someone asking for help. In looking
down the bank / saw three of my
men dancing the shimmie. l sent
seven men to their assistance. 1t
| was then that the water struck the
woodwork, wetting the men. l then
extended an apology as i was sorry
| hat the thing occurred. .
we put the balance of the fire out
on the bridge and then went to the
creek where the oil was burning on
the water heading toward h brldge
AFTER that we went to which
| were saturated with oil. We found
the bridge was starting In again so we
put that out. At 1:s5 we started TO
break hose. The Public Service Com
pany gave us a trolley to carry our
hose to the junction.
The Public Service officials We're
present, perhaps they can enlighten
Mr.. FELTON,.
Mr.. FELTON, says that / ordered my
men to throw water on the men. i
did nothing of the kind.
Imagine $50 pounds pressure on a
two inch hose reduced to one inch ana
striking any man or men. How could
they remain on a bridge and live to tell
the tale. Do you not think that it would
be a case for an undertaken.
In conclusion ! do not think any
Ione of the Avenel Companies went
home wet and with ruined clothes n
shoes MOI do / think any n of them
was in muck oil and water over shoe
tops. We had fifteen men in sucn
condition. Sometimes men are called
out OF bed and put on their clothes
over their nighties and when working
on the fire f~orGetstheir condition. AND
on arrival home find their nlghtles
covered with muck n oil, etc. Such
Is the life of volunteer bremen even
If he receives no credit.
w. A. GILHAM,
Chief.