Part 13

The suburban volunteer brigades have besides at their disposal 25 manual engines, 9 fire-escapes and 18 hose-reels. The whole of the hose for all brigades is of uniform pattern and make, with bayonet pattern standard couplings. The brigade posts an evening "fire watch" at the theatres. The men of the retained brigade get modest extra pay for fire brigade duty, but this pay is intended rather to cover disbursements or expenses than to be considered as wages. The brigade uses the municipal horses, all of which are stabled in proximity to the fire stations, and a number of which are kept on duty for fire brigade purposes in the actual stations. For all practical purposes the retained brigade is the professional brigade in which the men do municipal work in the municipal workshops, and elsewhere, i.e. in training, drill and general efficiency they are quite up to the best professional standard. The volunteer brigade is well drilled and includes the best of the younger townsmen, who do duty at night by rotation. The brigade's responsibilities are clearly defined, and the position of the professional chief and second officer clearly laid down by by-laws. There are 129 fire-call points. During the fifty years' existence of the service, 85 firemen received the twenty-five years' long-service medal, of whom 32 belonged to the suburban volunteer brigades.

_Venice._--The Venice fire brigade is a section of the force of "Vigili" or municipal watchmen, which body does general duty in preserving order and rendering assistance to the community. In other words, this force performs the duties of the civil police (rather than governmental or criminal police), fire, patrol watch service, and public control in a general sense. The force, which in all its sections made a most excellent impression, has a commandant, under whom the two primary sections work, namely (a) the civil police section and the (b) fire brigade section; each section in turn having its own principal officers. The police section comprises some 108 of all ranks, and the fire brigade section some 73 of all ranks (1908). The commandant of the whole force is a retired military officer, and the chief of the fire service section is a civil engineer, and these two officers, together with the chief of the civil police section, are the three superior officers of the force. The police section serve as auxiliaries to the fire brigade section in case of any great fire, and, of course, generally work very much hand in hand on all occasions. The fire brigade section has 3 superintendents, 6 foremen, 6 sub-foremen, 6 corporals and 40 file. The section is well equipped with appliances, both hand and steam, having a large modern petrol-propelled float, constructed in London, a large old type steam-float, two 35-ft. old steam-floats, and several small petrol motor-floats or first turnout appliances. The manual-engines, ladders, &c., which are in considerable number, are carried in a large fleet of swift gondolas. Fire-escape work is done with Roman ladders, which are usually planted on two gondolas flung together barge-form, or, if the depth of the canal permits, the lower length is buried in the canal bottom. Hook ladders are also used.

Men are distributed in six companies of varying strength, the headquarters company being stationed at the town hall, with a strength of 22, and most of the steam and petrol floats lie opposite the station. The fire brigade does theatre watch duty. As a fire station of considerable interest, should be mentioned the one at the Doge's palace; the large vaults occupying a portion of the ground floor facing St Mark's Square have been adapted for fire station purposes in a very simple yet artistic manner, and the old gear of the brigade has been used to form emblems, &c.

_Vienna._--In 1892 the Vienna fire service was reconstituted on modern lines owing to the area of the Vienna municipality having been greatly extended. The professional brigade was somewhat strengthened and entirely re-equipped, and the various existing volunteer brigades of the outlying districts were transformed into suburban volunteer fire brigades, equipped and controlled by the municipality and standing under the general command of the fire brigade headquarters. The principle involved was the utilization of the splendid volunteer force around Vienna for the purpose of strengthening the municipal brigade, a principle of great economic advantage, as the professional brigade would otherwise have had to be materially strengthened, probably trebled. These suburban volunteer fire brigades number no fewer than 34, and have 1200 firemen of all ranks. They are practically independent institutions as far as the election of officers and administration is concerned, but their equipment and uniforms and their fire stations are provided by the municipality, and in certain districts a staff of professional firemen detached from headquarters are attached to their stations as telegraph clerks and drill-instructors.

The suburban volunteer brigades turn out to fires in their own districts, and further, assist in other districts when so ordered by headquarters. They form a strong reserve for great fires in the city proper. Headquarters, of course, renders assistance at large suburban fires. These suburban volunteer fire brigades are very perfectly equipped with appliances, generally of the same type as those used in the central professional brigade. Some of these brigades are equipped with combined chemical engines with 15-metres long ladders attached. They have smoke helmets, and everything that may be termed modern. The men are volunteers in the truest sense of the word, i.e. do not take pay of any description or make any charges for attendance at fires or refreshments at fires.

The Vienna "professional brigade," as it is generally called, has a personnel (1906) consisting of 8 officers, 5 officials and 475 men. Of stations there is the headquarters, a district station, 4 branch stations with steam fire engines, 9 small branch stations, and 2 "watches" in public buildings. The officers of the brigade consist of the commandant, chief inspector and six inspectors. The officers, of whom four are on duty daily, are all quartered at headquarters. There are three telegraph superintendents. The rank and file is composed of 8 drill-sergeants, 40 telegraph clerks (three classes), 53 foremen (two classes), 22 engineers and stokers, 248 men (three classes). Twenty-four telegraph clerks and engineers are detailed for duty with the suburban volunteer brigades. There are 78 coachmen.

The following are the fire-extinguishing and life-saving apparatus and service vehicles of all kinds standing ready to "turn out":--2 open and 2 officers' service carriages (at headquarters), 6 "traps" for the first "turn-out" (5 at headquarters and 1 at the district fire station), each manned by one officer in charge and nine men, and equipped with 3 hook-ladders, a portable extension ladder and jumping sheet, a life-saving chute, an ambulance chest, 3 tool-boxes, a jack, tools, torches, 2 smoke-helmets, with hand-pump and a hose-reel attached; five special gear-carts (4 at headquarters and 1 at the district station), each manned by seven firemen and equipped like the "traps" with the exception that, instead of the life-saving chute, the carts carry with them a sliding-sheet, two petroleum torches each, an extension ladder (15 metres long) and some spare coal for the steam fire-engines; 4 pneumatic extension ladders each 25 metres long, and 3 extension turn-table ladders each 25 metres long (at headquarters and at two of the sub-stations); each of the pneumatic ladders has three men, and each turn-table ladder five men; 18 chemical engines (3 at headquarters and 1 each in the other stations), each having five men with 3 hook-ladders, a jointed ladder (in four sections), a hose-reel, a hand-engine, a smoke helmet, a jumping sheet, an ambulance chest, a tool box, torches, &c.; 8 steam fire-engines (3 at headquarters and one each in the district fire station and the 4 steam-engine stations), each with an engineer and stoker.

The reserve of appliances includes 12 manual engines, 15 large chemical engines, 17 steel water-carts (with 1000 litre reservoirs). The total number of oxygen smoke helmets in the brigade is 68, and there are 15 ordinary smoke helmets with hand-pumps. The total number of horses is 132. One electrically-driven trap and two electrically-driven chemical engines are being tried. The fire telegraphic and telephonic installation, including the lines in the volunteer brigades' districts kept up by the professional brigade, comprises 47 telegraph stations, 249 telephone stations, with altogether 161 Morse instruments and 536 semi-public fire-call points.

_Zurich._--Zurich covers about 12,000 English acres, 1500 of which are built over with some 15,000 houses, the whole of the buildings being subject to the local building regulations and the State Insurance Association's rules, in which they are compulsorily insured. The brigade is a compulsory militia brigade, placed under the control of the head of the department of police under a law of 1898. The same municipal officer is head of a special municipal committee of nine, entrusted with the safety of the town from fire. The executive officer of the committee is known as the inspector, and acts as captain of the fire brigade. His office is at the fire-brigade headquarters, where he has a small permanent staff both for brigade work and correspondence. Every male inhabitant of Zurich is compelled to do some service for the prevention of, or protection against, fire, from the age of twenty to fifty years. The duty may be fulfilled (1) by active service, or (2) in the case of an able-bodied citizen, who for some reason is not found suited to be a member of the brigade, or has been dismissed from the brigade, by the payment of a tax, which tax is fixed on the basis of his income. Certain citizens, however, are _ipso facto_ exempt from active service, namely members of parliament, members of council of the Polytechnic school, of the Cantonal government, of the High Court of Justice, and of the Town Council; also clergymen and schoolmasters, the officials of railways, tramway and steamboat companies, of the post-office and telephone department, students of the Polytechnic school and other educational institutions and municipal officials, with whose duties fire brigade service is incompatible. Exemption from active service can also be accorded on a testimonial of a medical board. Exemption from active service, however, in no case exempts from the tax, the total of which amounts to between L4000 and L5000. In making the selection of men for active service only, men particularly fitted for the work are taken, namely, men who are personally keen, who have a good physique, and who are preferably of the building or allied trades. The officers of the brigade are appointed by the municipal committee. The men's drills are by the chief officer, and the men are liable to fines and to imprisonment (up to four days) for not attending their drills. The whole of the brigade is insured against accidents and illness with the Swiss Fire Brigade Union at the expense of the city, and the city in addition provides a fund for families in cases of death of firemen on duty. There is also a sick fund provided for the brigade by the municipality, which also accords a scale of compensation.

The fire brigade comprises the very large complement of fifteen companies with 120 men each. Each company has three sections, namely, a fire service section, a life-saving section, and a police section, the last being utilized for keeping the ground and attending to salvage. Each company is supposed to be able, as a rule, to deal with the fire in its own district without calling upon the company of an adjoining district, and it is only in the case of a very serious fire that additional companies are turned out. There is thus a system of decentralization and independence of companies in this brigade not often met with elsewhere. Firemen are paid one franc for each drill of two hours. For fires, two francs for two hours, and fifty centimes per hour afterwards. Refreshments are provided. Any telephone can be used free by law for an alarm. The brigade has at its disposal an extension telephone service, but the men are not all connected up with the telephone of their respective districts, and thus the alarm is given mainly with horns sounded by men who are on the telephone. No section of the brigade has less than ten men on the telephone.

The water-supply is of a most excellent character. The appliances in the main comprise hydrants and hose-reels with ladder trucks, and each section has not less than 3000 ft. of hose. They are mainly housed in small temporary corrugated iron sheds with roller shutter doors, to which all the firemen have keys. There are some sixty of these hydrant houses distributed round the city, the larger appliances being at headquarters and at some depots.

Apart from the fact of there being the inspector or chief officer for the whole district, with a certain permanent staff, each company might be considered as a separate brigade, having its own chief officer and staff, and independent organization, the organization of the companies, however, being identical. A company comprises 1 chief officer, 1 second officer, 1 doctor, 2 ambulance men and 6 orderlies, a staff in charge, and the three sections have respectively 1 lieutenant, 1 deputy-lieutenant and 40 men for the fire service section; 1 lieutenant, 1 deputy-lieutenant and 40 men for the life-saving section, and 1 lieutenant, 1 deputy-lieutenant and 20 men for the police section. Only in the case of sections 1 and 2 is there some slight variation in the organization, namely, 1 and 2 sections have been combined as a joint section, with an additional senior officer. At Zurich, as in all Swiss fire brigades, there is an extraordinary uniformity of drills, rules, regulations and instructions in all its sections. In 1908 the brigade comprised 2268 in all ranks. There were about 70 fires in that year. (E. O. S.)

_United States._

Fire service in the United States has developed on so large a scale that in 1902 it was estimated by P.G. Hubert ("Fire Fighting To-Day and To-Morrow," _Scribner's Magazine_, 1902, 32, pp 448 sqq.) that in proportion to population the fire force of America was nearly four times that of Germany or France and about three times that of England. The many fires consequent on wooden construction even in the large cities; the bad effect of sudden climatic changes--drying, parching heat being followed by weather so cold as to require artificial heating; the less safe character of heating appliances; and, especially in tenements, the more inflammable character of furniture, are some of the reasons assigned for greater fire frequency in America. Fire-fighting service in the United States is in no way connected with the military as it is on the continent of Europe; the association of volunteer with paid firemen is uncommon except in the suburban parts of the large cities, and in the smaller cities and towns, where volunteers serving for a certain term are, during that term and thereafter, exempt from jury duty.

_New York._--The fire department of New York City is the result of gradual development. The first record of municipal action in regard to fire prevention dates from 1659, when 250 leather buckets and a supply of fire-ladders and hooks were purchased, and a tax of one guilder for fire apparatus was imposed on every chimney; in 1676 fire-wells were ordered to be dug; in 1686 every dwelling-house with two chimneys was required to provide one bucket (if with more than two hearths, two), and bakers and brewers had to provide three and six buckets respectively; in 1689 "brent-masters" or fire-marshals were appointed; in 1695 every dwelling-house had to provide one fire-bucket at least; in 1730 two Richard Newsham hand-engines were ordered from England, and soon afterwards a superintendent of fire-engines was appointed on a small salary; in 1736 an engine-house was built near the watch-house in Broad Street, and an act of the provincial legislature authorized the appointment of twenty-four firemen exempt from constable or militia duty. Early in the 19th century volunteer fire companies increased rapidly in numbers and in importance, especially political; and success in a fire company was a sure path to success in politics, the best-known case being that of Richard Croker, a member of "Americus 6," commonly called "Big Six," of which William M. Tweed was organizer and foreman. Parades of fire companies, chowder parties and picnics (predecessors of the present "ward leader's outing") under the auspices of the volunteer organizations, annual balls after 1829, water-throwing contests, often over liberty poles, and bitter fights between different companies (sometimes settled by fist duels between selected champions), improved the organization of these companies as political factors if not as fire-fighters. So devoted were the volunteers to their leaders that in 1836, when James Gulick, chief engineer since 1831, was removed from office for political reasons, the news of his removal coming when the volunteers were fighting a fire caused them all to stop their work, and they began again only when Gulick assured them that the news was false; almost all the firemen resigned until Gulick was reinstated. The type of the noisy, rowdy New York volunteer fire hero was made famous in 1848-1849 by Frank S. Chanfrau's playing of the part Mose in Benjamin Baker's play, _A Glance at New York_. The Ellsworth Zouaves of New York were raised entirely from volunteer firemen of the city.

In 1865, when the volunteer service was abolished, it consisted of 163 companies (52 engines, 54 hose; 57 hook and ladder) manned by 3521 men (engines averaging 40 to 60 men, hose-carts about 25, and hook and ladder companies about 40); the chief engineer, elected with assistants for terms of five or three years by ballots of the firemen, received a salary of $3000 a year; and three bell-ringers in each of eight district watch-towers, who watched for smoke and gave alarms, received $600 a year. The legislature in March 1865 created a Metropolitan Fire District and established therein a Fire Department, headed by four commissioners, who with the mayor and comptroller constituted a board of estimate.

This organization was practically unchanged until 1898, when the Greater New York was chartered and the present system was introduced. At its head is a commissioner who receives $7500 a year. The more immediate head of the firemen is a chief (annual salary $10,000), the only member of the force not appointed on the basis of a civil service examination; the chief has a deputy in Manhattan (for Manhattan, Bronx and Richmond boroughs) and another for Brooklyn and Queens, each receiving an annual salary of $5000.

In December 1908 there were: 14 deputy chiefs (eight in Manhattan, Bronx and Richmond, and six in Brooklyn and Queens); 59 chiefs of battalion (31 in Manhattan, Bronx and Richmond, and 28 in Brooklyn and Queens); 248 foremen or captains (137 in Manhattan, Bronx and Richmond, and 111 in Brooklyn and Queens), 365 assistant foremen (221 in Manhattan, Bronx and Richmond; and 144 in Brooklyn and Queens); 431 engineers of steamers (247 in Manhattan, Bronx and Richmond, and 184 in Brooklyn and Queens) and 2933 firemen (1772 in Manhattan, Bronx and Richmond, and 1161 in Brooklyn and Queens); and the total uniformed force was 4107. At the close of 1908 there were 88 engine companies--at East 99th St., Battery Park, Grand St. (East River), West 35th St., Gansevoort St. and West 132nd St.; and in Manhattan and the Bronx there were 38 hook and ladder companies; in Brooklyn and Queens there were 70 engine companies, including two fire-boat companies--at 42nd St. and at North 8th St. The appropriations for the year 1906 were $4,777,687 for Manhattan, Bronx and Richmond, and $3,147,033 for Brooklyn and Queens; and the department expenses were $3,980,535 for Manhattan, Bronx and Richmond, and $2,565,849 for Brooklyn and Queens.

The first high-pressure main system in the city was installed at Coney Island in 1905, gas-engines working the pumps. Electrically driven centrifugal pumps are used in Brooklyn (protected area, 1360 acres) and in Manhattan, where the system was introduced in 1908, and where the protected district (1454 acres) reaches from the City Hall to 25th St. and from the Hudson east to Second Avenue and East Broadway, being the "Dry Goods District"; water is pumped either from city mains or from the river, and the change may be made instantaneously. The fire watch-tower system was abolished in 1869; the present system is that of red box electric telegraph alarms, which register at headquarters (East 67th St.), where an operator sends out the alarm to that engine-house nearest to the fire which is ready to respond, and a chart informing him of the absence from the engine-house of apparatus. There are volunteer forces (about 2700 men) in Queens and Richmond boroughs and in other outlying districts.

_Boston._--The Boston fire department (reorganized after the great fire of 1872) is officered by a commissioner (annual salary, $5000), a chief (annual salary, $4000), a senior deputy ($2400), and a junior deputy ($2200), twelve district chiefs ($2000 each), a superintendent and an assistant superintendent of fire-alarms, and a superintendent and an assistant superintendent of the repair shop. In 1909 the force numbered 877 regulars and 8 call men. There were 53 steam fire-engines, 14 chemical engines, 3 water-towers, 3 combination chemical engines and hose-wagons (one being motor-driven), 3 fire-boats (built in 1889, 1895 and 1909 respectively), 29 ladder-trucks and 49 hose-wagons. The auxiliary salt-water main service was established in 1893. The earliest suggestion of the application of the electric telegraph to a fire-alarm system was made in Boston in 1845 by Dr Wm. F. Channing; in 1847-1848 Moses G. Farmer, then a telegraph operator at Framingham, made a practicable electric telegraph alarm; and in 1851-1855 Farmer became superintendent of the Boston fire-alarm system, a plant being installed in 1852.[2]

_Chicago._--The Chicago organization practically dates from the fire of 1871, though there was a paid department as early as 1858. Its principal officers are a fire-marshal and chief of brigade (salary $8000), four assistant fire-marshals, a department inspector, eighteen battalion chiefs, a superintendent of machinery, a veterinary and assistant, and about one hundred each of captains, lieutenants, engineers and assistant engineers; the total regular force in 1908 was 1799 men with an auxiliary volunteer force of 71 in Riverdale, Norwood Park, Hansen Park and Ashburn Park. In the business part of the city there is a patrol of seven companies employed by the Board of Fire Underwriters. Since 1895 all men in the uniformed force (except the chief of brigade) are under civil service rules. In 1908 the equipment included 117 engine companies, 34 hook and ladder companies, including one water-tower, 15 chemical engines and one hose company; and there were 5 fire-boats (4 active and 1 reserve). The first fire-boat was built in 1883. The initial installation of high-pressure mains was completed in 1902, and was greatly enlarged in 1908.

_Fire Appliances._