Evening star., 1936-07-18
NOISE, NOT SPEED
Fire Apparatus Limited to 35 NJ P H., but
Sirens and Big Engines Give I'M
preston of Faster Travel

job, but not harder than the drivers,
the department says.
Many lives and untold thousands OF
dollars are saved by vigilant fire pre-
vention work, which may range from
cooperation with the Federal Fire
Council on the recent inspection Of
the White House. revealing it as a
'firetrap." to seeing that correct exits
and proper wiring are provided In
new theaters and other buildings when
they are still in the blue print stage.
Large downtown movie houses and
theaters are inspected daily by one Of
Marshall Lauber's men, and neighbor-
hood houses are checked at least once
week. Seeing that stage scenery is
flreproofed is another necessary chore.
At Christmas time special details are
sent to the big stores to see that
aisles and exits are kept clear of holi-
day merchandise. Apartments and
hotels are carefully watched.
Of the 1885 fire loss s2e8.0l8 was
was not.
THE department reports that few
fires are deliberately set here with
view to realizing insurance. But
there are some arson cases, fires are
set for spite, and there are fire bugs
and pyromaniacs, and so the DEPART
ment investigates every fire. Two ex-
perts do most of the fire detective
work in suspicious cases.
A fire bug was responsible for one of
the worst nights in the departments
memory. A crazed man started out
on the evening of January l6, 1928,
to set fire to the city.
First he touched off a blaze in a
Woolworth five and ten at Ninth and
Pennsylvania avenue and it grew to
a five-alarm inferno. Then he sped
around the corner to Tenth street to
its 200 block and set flames licking
away in a commission house and that
was two-alarlner.
BY this time with most of the city'S
fire. fighting apparatus busy he moved
out Northeast and started three more
blazes, one in feed store on H street,
one in vacant warehouse on Ecking-
ton place, and another in planning
mill on w street.
Before these fiercely-burning fires
we're out, all of Washington's fire.
men and small engines from neigh
boring communities had been called
out and Baltimore had sped 10 COM
panies the 40 miles between the cities.
The total fire loss of that night
amounted to S89,155. 1t was a night
of terror, with alarms changing and
sirens shrieking steadily. and firemen
black with CRIME and desperate with
fear that still another alarm would
come in. The firebug was caught and
is now in an institution.
Two of the most difficult recent
fires to fight were at the new and old
Post Office Department buildings.
When lightning struck the steeple of
the old building, firemen had a hard
time reaching it, and when a devas-
tating fire broke out in the files OF
the new building, smoke slowed the
work and sent many firemen to the
hospital.
THE Hyattsville Fire Company has
a tricky gaoget called the smoke
ejector. which works something like
vacuum cleaner and sucks the smoke
out of a burning room. Our de-
partment hasn't one, but all of the
men use gas masks in heavy smoke.
The fire-alarm system of the Dis
trict is a very complicated mecha-
nism. yet its method of operation is
comparatively simple. There are S82
alarm boxes on Washington streets,
plus 234 private boxes and 232 tele-
phone stations. Each box has q
number which establishes its loca-
ton. When you break the glass and
turn the key, or on a new glassleSs
box just pull an alarm. the number
of that alarm box is registered by
bell and tape at central alarm
headquarters in the District Building.
The operator there Immediately taps
out signal. with strokes equal to the
digits In the box number. For exan-
pie, if you set off an alarm in box
las, he will signal with one ring, a
pause, four rings. a pause and five
rings. That signal goes to every one
of the 46 fire houses in the District.
The fire house in whose territory
the box is recognizes its signal and
dashes to the f1re-at 35 miles an
hour, remember. II a second alarm
goes In, fire houses a little farther
away from the box and scene Of the
fire answer. II third and fourth
alarm are sounded, the territory VII
dens to bring more fire companies into
the picture.
The Washington Fire Department Is
q long way away from those COMPETE
tive days when volunteer companies
in old New York would fight among
themselves for the privilege of putting
out fire-while the fire blazed away.
And supporters would help BY putting
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