Fire prevention and fire extinction
by James Braidwood · English · Gutenberg #26440 · 346,940 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: Fire prevention and fire extinction
Author: James Braidwood
Release date: August 27, 2008 [eBook #26440]
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIRE PREVENTION AND FIRE EXTINCTION ***
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book was produced from scanned images of public domain
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[Illustration: Jas. Braidwood]
FIRE PREVENTION
AND
FIRE EXTINCTION.
BY
JAMES BRAIDWOOD,
FIRST SUPERINTENDENT OF THE LONDON FIRE-BRIGADE, AND ASSOCIATE OF
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS.
INCLUDING
FIRE-PROOF STRUCTURES, FIRE-PROOF SAFES, PUBLIC FIRE BRIGADES, PRIVATE
MEANS FOR SUPPRESSING FIRES, FIRE-ENGINES, FIRE ANNIHILATORS,
PORTABLE FIRE-ESCAPES, WATER SUPPLY
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS, MEMOIR, AND PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR.
LONDON:
BELL AND DALDY, 186, FLEET STREET.
1866.
[_The right of Translation is reserved._]
CONTENTS.
MEMOIR.
PAGE
Introductory, Early Fires, Fire Engines, and Fire Brigades 5
Mr. Braidwood's birth and education 7
Great Fire of Edinburgh, and appointment as head of Brigade 8
Award of Silver Medal of Society of Arts, London; publication
of work on Fire Engines 11
Formation of London Fire Brigade; appointment as Superintendent 13
Testimonials received upon leaving Edinburgh 14
London residence and routine of duty 16
Valuable services of the Royal Society for the Protection of
Life from Fire 17
Statistics of Fires; improvement of Fire Engines 18
Introduction of ladders, hose reel, and hand pump 19
Floating Fire Engines, hand worked and steam; Land Steam
Fire Engine 20
Inspection of Government Dockyards and Public Buildings;
establishment of a standard hose coupling 21
Admitted an Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers;
award of Telford Medal; endeavours to restrain the erection
of immoderate-sized warehouses 22
His opinion as to the inadequacy of London Fire Brigade;
Great Tooley Street Fire 23
Death of Mr. Braidwood 24
Public funeral 25
Public and private character 28
World-wide esteem in which he was held 30
Poem--A True Hero 32
FIRE PREVENTION, INCLUDING FIREPROOF STRUCTURES--CAUSES OF FIRES.
Inattention in the use of fires and lights 33
Advantages of a legal inquiry into the cause of Fires 37
Improper construction of buildings 37
Acts of Parliament for buildings in London 39
Results of improper construction of warehouses in Liverpool 41
Arrangements for the safety of the audience in theatres 42
Danger from furnaces and close fires 43
Danger from pipes conveying products of combustion 44
Spontaneous ignition; use of gas 45
Incendiarism; monomania 46
FIREPROOF STRUCTURES.
What is fireproof construction 47
Use of cast and wrought-iron 49
Mr. Fairbairn's experiments 50
Danger to life from use of cast-iron columns 54
Report on warehouses 55
Covering timber with iron 56
Fireproof dwelling-houses 57
Fireproof safes 58
FIRE EXTINCTION, INCLUDING FIRE BRIGADES, FIRE
ENGINES, AND WATER SUPPLY--FIRE BRIGADES.
Individual exertions for Fire Extinction 59
Fire Brigades on the Continent of Europe, in England, in America 66
Necessity for the control of arrangements by one individual 67
Proposal for a national system 68
Fire Engines at noblemen's and gentlemen's residences 70
Training and discipline of Firemen 71
General instructions for Firemen, and for the use of Fire Engines 72
Necessity for the water striking the burning materials 74
Inventions for elevating branch pipes considered 76
LONDON FIRE BRIGADE.
General description of men and engines 79
Division of London into districts 81
General regulations 82
Conditions of entrance into the establishment 83
Outline of general duty 85
Duties of Superintendent 88
" Foremen 90
" Engineers 93
" Sub-Engineers and Firemen 94
EDINBURGH FIRE BRIGADE.
Description of men selected 96
Mode of communicating with Firemen at a Fire 97
Dress and drill of Firemen 99
Gymnastic exercises 104
General regulations 106
Duties of Police 107
" Superintendent of Brigade 109
" Head Enginemen 110
" Firemen, and High Constables 111
" Magistrates, and Gas-Light Companies 113
Special regulations for Firemen 114
Means of escape from Fire 118
FIRE ENGINES.
The application of manual power 123
Engines used by the British Government 124
Description of Brigade Fire Engine 126
Hand Pump; keeping Fire Engines in order 130
Selection of Engine House 132
Apparatus provided with London Brigade Engine 133
Leather hose 134
Hose couplings 140
Suction pipes 143
Jet pipes, proper shape 145
Fire annihilator 149
WATER SUPPLY.
By pressure, from surface of ground, and by sunk tanks 150
Experiments with jets under a constant pressure 153
Fire plug used in London 155
Canvas cistern and stand-cock used with fire plug 156
Double fire-cock used in the Government Dockyards 158
Double hollow key fire-cock used in the British Museum 159
Supply by Water Companies in London 162
Supplying Fire Engines from fire-cocks, &c. 163
APPENDIX.
Steam Fire Engines, progress in construction 166
Trials before the Jury of the International Exhibition, 1862 168
Trials at the International Competition, London, 1863 173
Steam Fire Engines in use by Metropolitan Brigade, May, 1866 181
Act of Parliament for Metropolitan Fire Brigade 182
Establishment of Metropolitan Fire Brigade 197
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Portrait of Mr. Braidwood on steel by Jeens,
from a photograph by Williams Frontispiece.
Longitudinal section of Brigade Fire Engine 124
Transverse section of ditto 125
Old coupling for hose 140
New ditto, ditto 141
Branch and jet pipe 145
Opening in sunk tank for suction pipe 151
Fire plug used in London 155
Fire plug with canvas cistern 156
Fire plug with stand-cock 157
Single fire-cock 158
Double fire-cock used at dockyards 158
Double fire-cock used at British Museum 159
EDITOR'S PREFACE.
The appearance at the beginning of last year, in the Annual Report of
the Institution of Civil Engineers for 1861 and 1862, of a short
memoir of Mr. Braidwood, suggested the publication of a more extended
account of the life of the late head of the London Fire Brigade,
combined with his opinions upon the subject of his profession.
These opinions are comprised in a work on "Fire Engines, and the
Training of Firemen," published in Edinburgh in 1830; two papers upon
cognate subjects read before the Institution of Civil Engineers, two
similar papers read before the Society of Arts, and in a variety of
reports upon public buildings, warehouses, &c. While regretting the
great loss that the public has sustained, in being deprived by Mr.
Braidwood's sudden death of a complete record of his long and varied
London experience, it has been considered advisable to republish the
above materials arranged in a systematic form, omitting only such
parts as the Author's more matured experience rendered desirable, but
confining the whole to his own words.
LONDON,
_June, 1866._
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
_To his work "On the Construction of Fire-Engines and Apparatus; the
Training of Firemen; and the Method of Proceeding in cases of Fire,"
published in Edinburgh, in 1830._
Not having been able to find any work on Fire-Engines in the English
language, I have been led to publish the following remarks, in the
hope of inducing others to give further information on the subject.
For the style of the work I make no apology; and as I presume no one
will read it except for the purpose of gaining information, my aim
will be obtained if I shall have succeeded in imparting it, or in
directing the public attention to the advantage which may be derived
from the systematic training of Firemen.
MEMOIR
OF
JAMES BRAIDWOOD.
The history of mankind, from the earliest times, has been one of
alternate peace and war with fire. The immeasurable value of its
obedience, and the fearful consequences of its insubordination, have,
in all ages, made its due subjection one of the most important
conditions of even human existence itself. As camps and trading
stations grew into populous cities, the dangers of fire were both
multiplied and aggravated. Its ravages in the ancient capitals of the
world are matters of history; and it is established that something
like organization was extended to the means then employed for
suppressing conflagrations. Even the fire-engine itself, in a
practicable, although imperfect form, was described and illustrated by
a sectional working drawing, by Hero of Alexandria, in a book written
by him more than one hundred years before the Christian era. In its
many translations, from the original Greek into Latin and into modern
tongues, Hero's book, with its remarkable series of drawings, still
occupies a place in the mechanical literature of our own time. But,
although the construction of the fire-engine was thus known two
thousand years ago, we have no actual evidence of its use until within
the last two centuries; and within the whole compass of English
history, at least, we know that nothing like discipline and
organization, in the modern sense of the terms, were introduced into
the management of fire apparatus until a time quite within the
recollection of the middle-aged men of our own day. If there be
anything apparently improbable in this fact, we need only recollect
that many of the grandest triumphs of human genius, with which we are
already so familiar, are not yet forty years old. The modern system of
English fire brigades belongs wholly to the period of railways, steam
navigation, and electric telegraphs, and it owes nearly all to the
genius and disciplined heroism of a single individual, James
Braidwood, who, but little more than four years ago, fell--as nobly
for himself as sadly for others--at his chosen post of duty. What,
when he first gave his energies--indeed, his whole heart to it, was
but the rough and unskilful employment of the fireman, became under
Mr. Braidwood's command and his infusing spirit of order and
intelligence, as distinguished from reckless daring, a noble pursuit,
almost rising in dignity to a profession, and indeed acknowledged as
such by many, and significantly, although indirectly, by Royalty
itself.
Until the year 1833, not only the parish engines of the metropolis,
numbering, as they did, about three hundred, but the engines also of
the Fire Insurance Companies, were comparatively inefficient and often
out of order, while they were also under the most diverse, if not
irresponsible management. There were no really trained firemen, and
those who controlled and worked the engines were oftener in antagonism
with each other than acting in concert. The parish engines were in the
care of the beadles, and in one case a beadle's widow, Mrs. Smith, for
some years commanded one of the city engines. The energies of each
band of firemen were commonly reserved for the protection of property
only in which their own insurance company or parish was immediately
interested. As a rule, whatever water was thrown upon a burning
building was dashed against the walls, windows, and roof from the
outside only, very little if any really reaching the actual seat of
the fire within. As a consequence, fires, which are now quickly "got
under," were then left to burn themselves out, the spreading of the
fire being prevented either by deluging the contiguous buildings with
water, or by pulling them down altogether.
James Braidwood was born in Edinburgh in the year 1800. His father was
a well-known upholsterer and builder, who appears to have chosen for
his son the profession of a surveyor. To this end he was entered at
the High School, then under the rectorship of Mr. (afterwards
Professor) Pillans, and here, and subsequently under private masters,
the youth received a sound education in the branches most appropriate
to his intended pursuit in life. He was for some time engaged in his
father's business, and thereby gained an amount of practical
knowledge, which was of, perhaps, as much service to him in his
subsequent career as a fireman, as it would have been had he adopted
the profession originally chosen for him. Young Braidwood was an apt
student, a fact, perhaps, sufficiently attested afterwards by his
successful authorship, at the age of thirty, of the only English work
then extant upon the fire-engine and its proper management. He read
much, wrote well, was a good draughtsman, and had a sound knowledge of
mechanics. But whether his powers required wider scope than a
surveyor's practice could offer, or whether, more than forty years
ago, and in Edinburgh, the chances of professional success were very
much less than now, James Braidwood soon turned his mind to what
became the great work of his life. He was becoming known for activity
and a high order of personal courage, and there were those in place
and power who saw in him the other elements of character which go to
make a successful leader of men. He was soon, and when but
twenty-three years of age, made the superintendent of the Edinburgh
fire engines, and he almost as soon began to reform their inefficient
and vicious system of management. He had held his post but three
weeks, however, when the series of fires broke forth which still bear
the name of the Great Fire of Edinburgh. Many of the old and lofty
houses in the High Street were destroyed, between four and five
hundred families were made houseless, ten persons were either killed
outright or fatally injured, and for several days nearly the whole of
the High Street, if not the larger part of the old town, was
threatened with destruction. Never were the consequences of want of
organization more conspicuous. There was no real command, for there
were none to obey; and while those who might have stopped the flames
at the outset, wasted their own energies in random efforts, or,
perhaps, fell to quarrelling among themselves, the fearful devastation
rolled on. The occasion was sufficient to induce the authorities and
insurance companies to listen to and profit by Mr. Braidwood's
recommendations. They consented to bear in common the expenses
necessary to organize and maintain an efficient brigade. This was soon
formed of picked men, who, although daily engaged in their former
ordinary occupations, were regularly inspected, trained, and exercised
early in one morning of every week. Fires were becoming more and more
numerous year by year; but the influence of the improved system was
soon felt. The men were taught to improve to the utmost the first few
minutes after an alarm was given, and by constant emulation and
discipline, a spirit of wonderful readiness was cultivated in them.
They were trained to seek out and follow up the source of a fire
before it had had time to spread, and to throw the water from the
engines directly upon it, instead of wastefully, if not injuriously
about. The result was, that while out of forty-eight fires which
happened in the first year of the history of the brigade, eleven
proved total losses, and twelve "considerable" losses, the number of
total losses decreased rapidly, year by year, while the whole number
of "calls" was almost as rapidly increasing. Thus in the second year
of the brigade there were eighty "calls," of which seven were total,
and eighteen considerable losses. In the next three years, with from
ninety-four to one hundred and ninety-four "calls" yearly, there was
but one total loss in each year, and but from nine to eighteen
"considerable" losses.
Mr. Braidwood was meanwhile improving the fire-escapes, and when new
engines were added to the force, he procured better workmanship. By
his personal influence, also, more than by the mere advantage of
official position, Mr. Braidwood secured the constant co-operation of
the police in giving the earliest alarms of fire, and in facilitating
the labours of the firemen when actually on duty. As has just been
shown, the results of method, applied skill, and of a personal
devotion cultivated under the high impulse of immediate public
observation and approval, were soon manifest. To this vast improvement
the _Edinburgh Mercury_, as representing the opinion of the citizens
of the Scottish capital, bore public testimony in its issue of August
14, 1828, when the Fire Brigade of that city had been tested by nearly
five years of constant trial, and with conspicuous success. Referring
to the excellent organization of the establishment, it was remarked
that there were then but few, if any, serious fires in Edinburgh, for
when a fire broke out--and the alarms were as frequent as ever--it was
speedily checked. Said the writer:--
"Not only is the apparatus constructed on the best possible
principles, but the whole system of operations has been
changed. The public, however, do not see the same bustle, or
hear the same noise as formerly; and hence they seem
erroneously to conclude that there is nothing done. The fact
is, the spectator sees the preparation for action made, but
he sees no more. Where the strength of the men and the
supply of water used to be wasted, by being thrown against
windows, walls, and roofs, the firemen now seek out the spot
where the danger lies, and creeping on hands and feet into a
chamber full of flame, or smoke, often at the hazard of
suffocation, discover the exact seat of danger; and, by
bringing the water in contact with it, obtain immediate
mastery over the powerful element with which they have to
contend. In this daring and dangerous work men have
occasionally fainted from heat, or dropped down from want of
respiration, in which cases the next person at hand is
always ready to assist his companion, and to release him
from his service of danger."
In a fire which happened while Mr. Braidwood was at the head of the
Edinburgh Brigade, he won great admiration by bringing out from the
burning building a quantity of gunpowder which was known to be stored
there. He would not ask any of his men to undertake this dangerous
feat, but, amidst the breathless suspense of thousands of spectators,
he coolly searched for and safely carried out, first one, and then a
second, cask of this explosive material. Had the fire reached the
powder, it was known that the worst consequences of the conflagration
would have been immensely increased.
The fame of the Edinburgh Brigade rapidly spread throughout the
kingdom, and it gradually became regarded as a model to which all
other organizations for the suppression of fires would ultimately be
made to conform. As a response to constant inquiries from a distance,
Mr. Braidwood, in 1829, forwarded to the Society of Arts, London, a
description of his chain-ladder fire-escape. For this invaluable
apparatus, which had already effected a considerable saving of life,
the Society's Silver Medal was awarded, and, accompanying the award,
the Council of the Society extended an invitation to the author to
"give a complete account of his mode of drilling firemen, and
combining the use of fire-escapes with the ordinary fire-engine
service." Responding to this invitation, Mr. Braidwood in the
following year published his work "On the Construction of Fire-Engines
and Apparatus, the Training of Firemen, and the Method of Proceeding
in Cases of Fire." From this work, which may still be regarded as an
authority, extensive extracts have been made in the subsequent
chapters of the present volume, and it need not, therefore, be further
referred to here than to say that it formed a thoroughly original
account of an original system, and that its illustrations, which were
especially clear, were drawn by the author's own hand. This work
attracted much attention from municipal bodies and insurance companies
throughout the kingdom, and more than one official deputation visited
Edinburgh to learn from Mr. Braidwood himself the details of a system
which was already working such important results. In London,
especially, three West India warehouses had been burnt in the year
1829, with a loss of 300,000_l._; and with the extending use of gas,
the increasing frequency of fires, and the conspicuous inefficiency of
the parish engines, and the want of unity of action among the
insurance companies, it was felt that what had answered so well in
Edinburgh would prove still more valuable in the metropolis. The
general estimation in which Mr. Braidwood's services were then held
may be considered as expressed in the following, among other
contemporary reviews of his book:--
"The Edinburgh Fire-engine Establishment is now all but
perfect. A unity of system has been accomplished, and a
corps of firemen mustered, who, in point of physical vigour
and moral intrepidity, are all entitled to be denominated
chosen men. At the head of this band stands Mr. Braidwood,
an individual who has on several occasions given abundant
evidence of promptitude in extremity, and a noble contempt
of personal danger, and whose enthusiasm, in what we may
call his profession, could not have been more strikingly
exemplified than by his illustrating it in the manner we now
see before us. It is the only book we are acquainted with
that treats of the systematic training of firemen; and from
the perspicuity of its details, it must necessarily become
the manual of all such institutions, and ought to find a
place in every insurance office in the United Kingdom."
It had been from time to time attempted to bring the fire apparatus of
the London Insurance Companies under a single management; but it was
nearly ten years after the establishment of the Edinburgh Fire
Brigade, and only when Mr. Braidwood himself had been invited to come
to London, that this was at last effected. As for the parish engines,
they were wholly neglected under this arrangement, and, indeed, a
great number of them had been already allowed to fall into disuse, as
far as could be permitted without incurring the penalties of the
Statutes of 1774. On the 1st January, 1833, at the instance of Mr.
Ford, of the Sun Fire-office, eight of the insurance companies formed
an association of fire-engines and firemen, each company withholding
its own distinctive name and badges from the united force. This was
known as the London Fire-engine Establishment. It was supported by the
companies in common, each in proportion to the premiums received from
its business in London, a minimum rate being fixed. Each company
contributing to the support of the establishment nominated one member
of the committee of management. This association existed for
thirty-three years, when on the 1st of January, 1866, the Metropolitan
Board of Works took charge of the fire-engines and the general fire
establishment of the metropolis. Mr. Braidwood took the command of the
London Brigade thus formed at the onset. The Edinburgh Fire-engine
Committee, on accepting his resignation, presented him with a gold
watch, and a vote of thanks, "for the singularly indefatigable manner
in which he had discharged the duties of his important office, not
merely by his extraordinary exertions on occasions of emergency, but
for the care and attention he had bestowed on the training of the
firemen, whereby the establishment had been brought to its present
high state of efficiency." He had previously received from the men
under him a handsome silver cup, bearing the following
inscription:--"Presented to Mr. James Braidwood, by the City of
Edinburgh Firemen, as a token of their admiration of him as their
leader, and of deep respect for him as a gentleman."
As in Edinburgh, the London Fire Brigade under Mr. Braidwood's
superintendence became a new force, and in every respect a remarkable
organization. Where the inefficiency of the old firemen could not at
once be made to yield to discipline, they were pensioned off; and
within a short time a select band of active, hardy, and thoroughly
trained men was formed. In 1834, the second year of Mr. Braidwood's
superintendence, the Houses of Parliament were burnt; and a most
destructive fire occurred also at Mile-end. The first-named fire
created general consternation, and there are many persons who can
still recollect that also at Mile-end. These great fires stimulated
Mr. Braidwood to increased exertions, and the result was soon visible
in the lessened proportion of totally destroyed premises to the whole
number of fires. The brigade had, of course, no power of prevention,
and alarms of fire were becoming more numerous than ever. The use of
friction matches and of gas was increasing enormously; manufactures,
and the steam-engines and machinery for conducting them, were being
rapidly multiplied; and with the vast progress making in the
production of cotton goods, the use of cotton curtains and
bed-furniture was becoming common in dwellings forming a large
proportion of the metropolis, but in which, not long before, such
articles were either regarded as luxuries or were altogether unknown.
The total number of fires attended by the brigade in the year 1833,
exclusive of chimneys on fire, was 458, while in 1851 the number had
risen to 928; and although London had been growing all this time, it
had not doubled in size to correspond with the increased number of
fires. But while the total yearly number of fires, since the formation
of the brigade, has shown a large and hardly interrupted increase, the
number of cases of total destruction has almost as steadily
diminished. Thus, "totally destroyed" was reported of 31 fires in the
year 1833, whereas in 1839 there were but 17 cases, and the average
for twenty-one years, from 1833 to 1853 inclusive, was but 25-1/2
yearly, while at the present time, with all the vast growth of London,
the average, under the continuance of Mr. Braidwood's system, is
hardly if at all greater.
Mr. Braidwood from the first exhibited excellent judgment in his
choice of men to serve under him. He chose sailors, as a rule, as
being accustomed to obedience, and to irregular and prolonged duty,
while also they were especially hardy and active; and where there was
especial danger which must be met, he was always ready to lead, and
his men had soon learned to confide in his quick and sound judgment in
emergency, knowing that he would never permit them to incur needless
risk. His own iron constitution, and his habits of constant vigilance,
served as a high standard and incentive to those about him; and thus
it was, by selection, discipline, and example, resting upon a
foundation of even paternal kindness, that the men of the London Fire
Brigade became conspicuous for their courage, energy, hardihood, and
unalterable devotion to duty. The brigade, too, was most popular with
the public, and could always count upon any necessary assistance in
their labours. The system of rewards given to whoever was the first to
bring a call of fire, the liberal gratuity to the policeman who first
reached the burning premises, there preventing undue confusion, and by
keeping the street-door closed, shutting off a strong draught of air
from the flames, and the handsome pay to the ready throng of
strong-armed men who worked the engines, secured every co-operation
from the public, beyond that naturally springing from a general
admiration of so brave and well-trained a body of men.
Mr. Braidwood's residence was at the principal station of the
Fire-engine Establishment in Watling-street. To this station came all
alarms of fire. He attended in person all calls from leading
thoroughfares, public buildings, or localities where a serious
conflagration might be expected. In the night a call was announced to
him through a speaking-tube reaching to his bedside. The gas in his
room was always burning, and he would quickly decide, from the known
locality of the fire, and from the report given, whether he need go
himself. In any case, his men were awake and quickly away. Rapidity in
dressing, and in horseing and mounting the engines, was but a detail
of daily drill. The moment the scene of action was reached, nothing
was allowed to stand in the way of access to the actual seat of the
fire, and nothing either in securing a supply of water. The inmates of
the premises, if any, were quickly got out, and wherever an unhappy
creature was cut off by the flames, there were always one or more
firemen ready, if necessary, to brave an apparently certain death in a
heroic attempt at rescue--an attempt, indeed, which but seldom failed.
It is but just to say here that the firemen were always nobly
seconded, if not indeed anticipated, in these attempts by the officers
and men of the Royal Society for the Protection of Life from Fire--a
body which has long rendered priceless services to humanity under most
appalling circumstances. The men of the Fire Brigade were taught to
prevent, as much as possible, the access of air to the burning
materials. What the open door of the ash pit is to the furnace of a
steam-boiler the open street door is to the house on fire. In both
cases the door gives vital air to the flames. The men of the Brigade
were trained to pursue a fire, not yet under full headway, up-stairs
and down, in at windows and out through the roof, anywhere, so it
could be reached directly by the water from the engines. They were
made to regard it as worse than a waste to throw even a gallon of
water upon a dead wall or upon a surface of slate or plaster, so long
as by any means the branch pipe could be got to bear upon the seat of
the fire itself. The statistics of the operations of the London
Fire-engine Establishment from 1833 to the present time, show with
what success the system originated and so admirably carried out by Mr
Braidwood has been pursued. Of the whole number of fires not one in
fifty now proceeds to the extent of total destruction of the premises.
Previous to the organization of the Fire-engine Establishment there
were no official annual reports of the fires in the metropolis. No one
person by himself was indeed in a position to know all of the fires
that happened, any more than, but for Lloyds', could we know of all
the wrecks which take place around and upon our coasts. It was
impossible, under such a state of things, that either the value of
insurance to the insured or its risk to the insurer could be rightly
known. The general public could only know that, like fevers and
certain other classes of disease, fires were always breaking out, but
no one could know, even approximately, how great or how little was the
real general risk. When, however, a fire establishment was formed, the
engines were called to all fires, whether of insured or uninsured
property. It was not now difficult to tabulate the number and
localities of fires; but Mr. Braidwood went further, and extended his
yearly tables to include the various causes of fires, and the
classification of the premises, whether residences, shops, warehouses,
manufactories, &c., where they occurred, the subdivision of these
classes being extended to every variety of occupation and business.
Even the hours at which the various fires broke out were carefully
tabulated, and thus the particulars of London fires soon became an
important branch of statistics, from which the operations of insurance
have derived increased certainty, with greater economy to the insured.
Although regarding the training and discipline of firemen as of the
first importance in the organization of a fire brigade, Mr. Braidwood
gave a large share of attention to the improvement of fire-engines and
their kindred appliances. While in Edinburgh, where the steepness of
many of the streets, and the roughness of the pavements in the older
parts of the town prevented the rapid and easy movement of heavy
engines, he recommended and adopted a lighter description, but in
London he recognised the necessity for greater power. Mr. Tilley, then
a fire-engine maker in the Blackfriars'-road, ably seconded his
efforts, and at length the distinctive type known as the London Fire
Brigade Engine was produced, and which, weighing about eighteen cwt.
when ready for service, would throw eighty-eight gallons of water per
minute, and, in short trials, as much as 120 gallons in the same time.
This engine was mounted upon springs, and in strength and ease of
working presented a marked improvement upon those which had preceded
it. Its ordinary working complement of men was twenty-eight, and
larger engines, upon the same general design, have since been made, to
be worked by from forty-five to sixty men. The steam fire-engine has
already, to a certain extent, superseded the brigade engine, but the
latter is still likely, for some time at least, to be preferred for a
large class of fires, both in London and in the provinces.
Mr. Braidwood at an early date adopted the ordinary military scaling
ladders to the purposes of his brigade, two being placed on each
engine, and at his recommendation ladders were also placed on a
two-wheeled carriage as a convenient fire-escape. He also induced the
Admiralty, in 1841, to adopt hose-reels in the various dockyards,
these implements having been previously in successful use in New York.
In 1848 he was induced, in consequence of the large number of small
fires to which his engines were called out, to adopt a small hand-pump
as an auxiliary to the fire-engine. This could be rapidly brought to
bear, and although worked by but one man, the value of a small
quantity of water thrown directly upon the seat of a small fire was
found to be greater than that of perhaps twenty times as much when
thrown about in the ordinary manner. It was of great importance also
in warehouses stored with valuable goods, to throw the least necessary
quantity of water upon a fire. These hand-pumps still form an
important part of the present apparatus of the brigade, and they have
been widely adopted elsewhere.
London, unlike Edinburgh, has a vast water-side property, always
exposed to danger from fire. Almost immediately, therefore, after
having taken the command of the London Brigade, Mr. Braidwood directed
his attention to the construction of improved floating fire-engines,
to be moored in the river, where they would be always available for
the protection of wharf property. Two were constructed, one being a
machine of great power, with pumps made to be worked by 120 men. These
machines proved of great value. In 1852, shortly after the memorable
fire at Humphrey's warehouses, he persuaded the Fire-engine Committee
to allow one of these engines to be altered so as to work by steam,
and in 1855 a large self-propelling floating steam fire-engine was
made upon a novel construction, and which, having already rendered
great service at fires on the river side, still ranks as the most
powerful machine in the service of the brigade. With locomotive
boilers and large double steam engines, this float can steam nine
miles an hour, and when in place at a fire it can throw four streams
of water, each from a jet-pipe of 1-1/2 inch in diameter, to a great
distance. In the great fire of 1861, this floating engine was worked
with but little intermission for upwards of a fortnight. In 1860 Mr.
Braidwood obtained the sanction of the Fire-engine Committee for the
introduction of a land steam fire-engine, and although he did not live
to witness the present remarkable development of these machines, he
was enabled to employ the first one in the brigade with much
advantage.
We may quote here from a brief but excellent memoir of Mr. Braidwood,
which appeared in the annual report of the Institution of Civil
Engineers for 1861:
"As early as 1841, the Government began to profit by his
experience, the Lords of the Admiralty having in that year
consulted him on the subject of floating fire-engines for
the various dockyards. These were eventually constructed
from his designs and under his superintendence. In the
following year he inspected all the dockyards, and reported
fully on each, with regard to both floating and land
fire-engines, the supply of water, the alterations of
buildings to prevent spread of fire, and the proper care
required in dangerous trades. From this time, although not
holding any appointment, he acted as Government consulting
engineer on all questions relating to fire prevention and
extinction, and he advised from time to time the precautions
to be taken for the protection of the royal palaces and
various other public buildings. This position enabled him,
not without a great deal of opposition, to induce the
Government to adopt in all its departments a uniform size of
hose-coupling. This is the one which he introduced in
Edinburgh, and known as the London Fire Brigade coupling, is
now in almost universal use; its application has been found
comparatively of as much utility for fire-brigade purposes,
as the adoption of the Whitworth gauges of screw-bolts for
mechanical engineering.
"Although so fully occupied, he never refused advice on
professional matters to all who sought it. The various dock
companies, public institutions, country fire brigades,
private firms, &c., benefited largely by his experience. The
numerous inquiries from foreign countries and the colonies
with regard to the best means of extinguishing fires, also
made great inroads on his time. In 1833 he became an
Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers, to which,
in 1844, he contributed a valuable paper 'On the means of
rendering large supplies of Water available in case of Fire,
&c.,' for which he was awarded a Telford Medal; and in 1849
a second paper 'On Fire-Proof Buildings.' In 1856, a paper
on 'Fires: the best means of preventing and arresting them;
with a few words on Fire-Proof Structures,' was read by him
before the Society of Arts.
"He took great interest in the passing of Acts of Parliament
for regulating buildings in the metropolis, was consulted by
the framers of these Acts, and used his utmost influence to
prevent the endangering a whole neighbourhood by the
erection of monster warehouses for private profit. He
strongly contended for the principle of dividing buildings
by party-walls carried through the roof, and restricting
these divisions to a moderate cubic content. Writing to Lord
Seymour, Commissioner of Woods and Forests, on the 28th
June, 1851, he said 'that no preparations for contending
with such fires will give anything like the security that
judicious arrangements in the size and construction of
buildings will do.' The wise provisions introduced through
his instrumentality into these Acts of Parliament were
continually being evaded, and clusters of warehouses quickly
rose which he saw would, if on fire, defy all his means of
extinction. In a letter to Sir W. Molesworth, First
Commissioner of Public Works, dated 10th February, 1854, on
the subject of a proposed warehouse in Tooley-street, he
wrote 'The whole building, if once fairly on fire in one
floor, will become such a mass of fire that there is now no
power in London capable of extinguishing it, or even of
restraining its ravages on every side, and on three sides it
will be surrounded by property of immense value.' How
literally this was realized, and at what cost, was shown by
the great warehouse fire in Tooley-street, on the 22nd June,
1861, at which Mr. Braidwood lost his life."
The great fire at Cotton's Wharf; Tooley-street, broke out on
Saturday, June 22nd, 1861, and continued to burn for more than a
fortnight, consuming Scovell's, and other large warehouses, and, in
all, upwards of two millions' worth of property. The fire is believed
to have originated in the spontaneous combustion of hemp, of which
upwards of 1000 tons were consumed, together with 3000 tons of sugar,
500 tons of saltpetre, nearly 5000 tons of rice, 18,000 bales of
cotton, 10,000 casks of tallow, 1100 tons of jute, and an immense
quantity of tea, spices, &c., besides many other descriptions of
goods. Although discovered in broad daylight, and before the flames
had made any considerable headway, the want of a ready supply of
water, and the fact that the iron doors in the division walls between
the several warehouses had been left open, taken in connexion with the
extremely combustible nature of the materials, soon rendered hopeless
all chance of saving the buildings and property. Mr. Braidwood was
upon the spot very soon after the alarm had been given, and nearly the
whole available force of the Fire-engine Establishment was summoned at
his command. He appears to have at once foreseen that the fire would
be one of no ordinary magnitude, and that the utmost that could be
done would be to prevent its extending widely over adjoining property.
The floating fire-engines had been got to bear upon the flames, and
the men in charge of the branch pipes were, after two hours' work,
already suffering greatly from the intense heat, when their chief went
to them to give them a word of encouragement. Several minor
explosions, as of casks of tallow or of oil, had been heard, but as it
was understood that the saltpetre stored at the wharf was in buildings
not yet alight, no alarm was then felt as to the walls falling in. At
the moment, however, while Mr. Braidwood was discharging this his last
act of kindness to his men, a loud report was heard, and the lofty
wall behind him toppled and fell, burying him in the ruins. Those of
his men who were near him had barely time to escape, and one person at
his side, not a fireman, was overwhelmed with him. From the moment
when the wall was seen to fall, it was known that whoever was beneath
it had been instantly crushed to death. It is needless, and it would,
indeed, be out of place, to describe here the further progress of the
fire, which had then but fairly begun, and which was still burning
more than a fortnight afterwards.
Great as was the general consternation at so terrible a conflagration,
it is doubtful if the public were not still more impressed by the
dreadful death of Mr. Braidwood, and by a feeling that his loss was a
public misfortune. Her Majesty the Queen, with that ready sympathy
which she has ever shown for crushed or suffering heroism, commanded
the Earl of Stamford to inquire on the spot, on Monday, whether the
body had yet been recovered by the firemen, and Her Majesty's
sympathies were also conveyed to Mrs. Braidwood. It was not, however,
until the following morning, that after almost constant exertions,
under the greatest difficulties, the crushed remains were rescued. An
inquest was necessary, not merely to ascertain what was already well
known, that death had been instantly caused by accident, but to know
whether culpable carelessness of any kind had indirectly led to the
sorrowful event. None, however, appeared. The remains of the fallen
chief were afterwards borne to his late residence in Watling-street.
The members of the committee of the London Fire-engine Establishment,
formed of representatives from all of the twenty-five insurance
companies of London, had already met to express, by a formal
resolution, their sincere condolence with Mrs. Braidwood and her
family. It was known that the funeral would take place on Saturday,
June 29th, and it was widely felt that a general expression of sorrow
and respect should be made, in view of the common loss of so valued a
public servant, as well as for the noble qualities for which he had
been so long and so well known. On the occasion of the funeral this
was shown not more by the great length and marked character of the
_cortege_ itself than by the general suspension of business in the
leading thoroughfares of the city through which it passed, and by the
hushed demeanour of the countless multitude who pressed closely upon
the procession throughout its entire course. Among the thousands who
sadly led the way to the grave were the London Rifle Brigade, about
700 strong (and of which Mr. Braidwood's three sons were members), the
Seventh Tower-Hamlets, and other rifle corps, upwards of 1000
constables of the metropolitan police force, besides nearly 400
members of the city police, the superintendents and men of the various
water companies, the secretary and conductors and the band of the
Royal Society for the Protection of Life from Fire, a large number of
private and local fire-brigades, and the members of the London
Fire-engine Establishment. The pall-bearers were six of Mr.
Braidwood's engineers and foremen, some of whom were at his side when
he fell, and who had barely escaped with their own lives. Following
the chief mourners were the Duke of Sutherland, the Earl of Caithness,
the Rev. Dr. Cumming, and a large number of relatives and friends of
the deceased, and the committee of the London Fire-engine
establishment. The procession was nearly one mile and a-half in
length, and was about three hours in its progress from Watling-street
to Abney Park Cemetery, where the solemn service of the dead was
conducted by the Rev. Dr. Cumming, of whose congregation the deceased
had long been a member. With the exception of the great bell of St.
Paul's, which tolls only on the occasion of the death of a member of
the royal family or of a lord-mayor in office, the bells of all the
churches in the city were booming slowly through the day, and so
evident was the general sorrow that it could be truly said that the
heart of the nation mourned.
On Thursday, July 4th, a public meeting was held at the Mansion House,
when resolutions were passed for the collection of subscriptions
towards a memorial to Mr. Braidwood's long and arduous public
services. This memorial, it was felt, should take the form of a
permanent provision for his family, for the post of Fire Brigade
Superintendent had never been a lucrative one. Before, however, the
collection of subscriptions had extended beyond a few hundred pounds,
it was made known that the insurance companies had promptly settled
upon Mrs. Braidwood the full "value"--speaking in an insurable
sense--of her husband's life. Mr. Braidwood had for many years
supported two maiden sisters, and the public subscription was applied,
therefore, to the purchase of small annuities for each of them.
It will be remembered that the London Fire-engine Establishment was
from the first controlled only by the insurance companies, upon whom
of course, fell the whole cost of its maintenance. Their interest in
the suppression of fires, although direct and unmistakeable, was not
the same as that of the public. Thus, it would be to the public
advantage that no fires should happen, whereas such a result would be
fatal to the insurance companies, since no one in that case would
insure. Although the protection of the Establishment was in practice
extended alike to both insured and uninsured property, the real object
for which it was formed and maintained was undoubtedly that of
protecting insured property only. It was the interest of the companies
to incur as little expense as would, on the whole, fairly effect this
purpose, and it was not their interest to effectually protect the
whole of the metropolis from fire. Thus it was that, with all the
excellence of the organization and discipline of the Fire-engine
Establishment, it was greatly inferior in extent to what was requisite
for the proper security of the first city in the world. Mr. Braidwood
had long felt this truth, but, acting for a private association, he
could only go to the extent of the limited resources at his disposal.
It was, more than anything else, the great fire at Cotton's Wharf that
first directed public attention to the necessary insufficiency of any
private establishment for the general suppression of fires, and that
has led to the legislation under which the Fire-engine Establishment
was, on the 1st of January last, taken over and extended by the
Metropolitan Board of Works. London will now, it is hoped, be better
protected from fire, because of the increased extent of the means of
protection; but it can hardly be expected that the discipline of the
brigade will be improved.
Apart from the public value of Mr. Braidwood's career in increasing
the common security against a common foe, there was much in his
personal, intellectual, and moral qualities worthy of admiration. He
was a man of strong and commanding frame, of inexhaustible energy, and
of enduring vitality. The constitutions of but few men could have
withstood such long continued wear and tear as fell to his. He braved
all weathers, all extremes of heat and cold, could sleep or wake at
will, and could work on long after others would have given way. He was
always at his post, and in no moment of difficulty or danger did his
cool judgment or his steady courage forsake him. It was this, together
with his considerate bearing, and on occasions of special trial his
almost womanly kindness to his men, that inspired them with unlimited
confidence in him and in his plans. Beyond this, he was a man of
superior mind, with strong comprehensive and generalising faculties.
His various published papers, and a correspondence of which but few
could know the extent and importance, as well as his ready, clear, and
exact manner in stating his views before committees and before those
in authority, who so often consulted him, all attest an order of mind
which, in a different sphere, would alone have won distinction for its
possessor. His profession was one in which it happens that almost
every person thinks himself competent to give advice; yet, without any
assumption of authority, Mr. Braidwood could make it felt wherever he
pleased that he was a master in the art of extinguishing fire. But he
was not on this account the less ready to listen to suggestions, and
there are numbers who can bear testimony to the patient, honest, and
appreciative manner in which he considered the many and diverse
propositions submitted to him as the head of the Fire Brigade of the
first city in the world. The soundness of his views and opinions is
sufficiently attested by the success of his practice--a success which,
but for the Government tax upon fire policies, would have long since
made fire insurance in London almost the cheapest of all the forms of
protection of property from danger. The London Brigade was
insignificant in numbers and tame in display when compared with the
eight hundred _sapeurs pompiers_ of Paris, with their parade and all
their accessories of effect--insignificant and tame, too, after the
glittering apparatus, imposing paraphernalia, and deafening clatter of
the "Fire Department" of New York; but Mr. Braidwood's chosen men knew
how to do their duty, and considering the differences in the mode of
building and of heating, and in the extent of lighting in the three
great metropoli just named, it is an easy matter, on reference to
statistics, to prove that none others have done better.
Above all, Mr. Braidwood was a gentleman of deep Christian feeling;
and those who knew him best had never doubted that, had it been his
lot to linger long in pain, knowing the end that was to come, his calm
but unwavering faith in a better future would have sustained him
through all. Brought up from childhood in the faith of the Scotch
church, he was a regular attendant upon the ministrations of the Rev.
Dr. Cumming. In his own quiet way he did much good in the poorer
districts of London, and he took a special interest in the ragged
schools of the metropolis. What he was in his own home may be best
inferred from the crushing force with which his dreadful yet noble
fate fell upon those who were dearest to him. His family had already
too much reason to know the dangers which had always attended his
career. A step-son had fallen, five years before, in nearly the same
manner, and now lies buried in the same grave. Eleven members, in all,
of the brigade, had perished in the discharge of their duty during the
time Mr. Braidwood had commanded it: a fact which, taken with daily
experience, pointed to other victims to follow. Such consolation,
then, as a stricken widow and a mourning family could have, next to an
abiding faith in the goodness of God, was in the recollection of the
virtues and noble qualities of the husband and father, and in the
spontaneous sorrow with which a great people testified their sense of
his worth and of their common loss.
To show the universal as well as national esteem in which Mr.
Braidwood was held, two extracts are here given from the numerous
letters of condolence addressed to his bereaved family, from all parts
of the world. Mr. G. H. Allen, Secretary to the Boston (America) Fire
Department, writes: "It gives me pleasure to unite with the Board in
testimony to the extreme kindness of Mr. Braidwood in the conduct of
our correspondence, whereby we have been greatly benefited and
received extensive information. Allow me also to extend our sympathy
to those who have lost one who will ever be remembered as standing at
the head of the most valued arm of the Government, and one that you
can hardly expect to be replaced, except by years of experience and
great natural ability." Mr. T. J. Bown, Superintendent of the Sydney
(Australia) Fire Brigade, in a letter dated 22nd August 1861, says,
"On receipt of the sad news, our large fire-bell was tolled, the
British ensign hoisted half-mast high, and crape attached to the
firemen's uniform, as a token of respect for one of the noblest and
most self-denying men that ever lived, who spent and lost his life in
the service of his fellow-creatures."
A TRUE HERO.
JAMES BRAIDWOOD.--_Died, June 22nd, 1861._
By the Author of
"JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN."
Not at the battle front,--
Writ of in story;
Not on the blazing wreck,
Steering to glory;
Not while in martyr pangs
Soul and flesh sever,
Died he--this Hero new--
Hero for ever.
No pomp poetic crown'd,
No forms enchained him,
No friends applauding watched,
No foes arraigned him:
Death found him there, without
Grandeur or beauty,
Only an honest man
Doing his duty:
Just a God-fearing man,
Simple and lowly,
Constant at kirk and hearth,
Kindly and holy:
Death found--and touched him with
Finger in flying:--
So he rose up complete--
Hero undying.
Now, all mourn for him,
Lovingly raise him
Up from his life obscure,
Chronicle, praise him;
Tell his last act, done midst
Peril appalling,
And the last word of cheer
From his lips falling;
Follow in multitudes
To his grave's portal;
Leave him there, buried
In honour immortal.
So many a Hero walks
Daily beside us,
Till comes the supreme stroke
Sent to divide us.
Then the Lord calls His own,--
Like this man, even,
Carried, Elijah-like,
Fire-winged, to heaven.
_Macmillan's Magazine_, Vol. IV., page 294.
FIRE PREVENTION
INCLUDING
FIRE-PROOF STRUCTURES.
To prevent fires it is necessary to consider what are the principal
causes of such calamities. These may be classed under several heads:--
1. Inattention in the use of fires and lights.
2. Improper construction of buildings, &c.
3. Furnaces or close fires for heating buildings, or for
mechanical purposes.
4. Spontaneous ignition.
5. Incendiarism.
As almost all fires arise from inattention in one shape or another, it
is of the utmost importance that every master of a house or other
establishment should persevere in rigidly enjoining and enforcing on
those under him, the necessity of observing the utmost possible care
in preventing such calamities, which, in nineteen cases out of twenty,
are the result of remissness or inattention. Indeed, if any one will
for a moment consider the fearful risk of life and property, which is
often incurred from a very slight inattention, the necessity of
vigilance and care will at once be apparent. Immense hazard is
frequently incurred for the most trifling indulgences, and much
property is annually destroyed, and valuable lives often lost, because
a few thoughtless individuals cannot deny themselves the gratification
of reading in bed with a candle beside them.
Some years ago, upwards of 100,000_l._ were lost, through the partner
of a large establishment lighting gas with a piece of paper, which he
threw away, and thus set fire to the premises, although it was a
strict rule in the place that gas should only be lighted with tapers,
which were provided for that purpose. In one department of a great
public institution, it was, and is still, a rule that only covered
lights should be carried about, and for that purpose four lanterns
were provided; yet, on inquiry some time back, it was found that only
one was entire, the other three being broken--one having lost two
sides and the top; still they were all used as covered lights.
The opportunities for inattention to fires and lights are so various,
that it is impossible to notice the whole.
One of the prevailing causes of fire is to be traced to persons
locking their doors, and leaving their houses to the care of children.
I believe one-half of the children whose deaths are occasioned by
accident suffer from this cause alone: indeed, almost every week the
newspapers contain some melancholy confirmation of what I have here
stated. Intoxication is also a disgraceful and frequent cause of fire.
The number of persons burned to death in this way is really
incredible. It is true that it does not always happen that a fire
takes place in the house, in either of the above cases, although the
unfortunate beings whose clothes take fire, rarely escape with their
lives; but the danger to the neighbourhood is at all times
considerable, if persons in a state of inebriety are left in a house
alone. When there is reason to apprehend that any member of a family
will come home at night in that state, some one should always be
appointed to receive him, and on no account to leave him till he is
put to bed, and the light extinguished.
I do not mean to say that people must be actually drunk before danger
is to be apprehended from them. Indeed, a very slight degree of
inebriety is dangerous, as it always tends to blunt the perception,
and to make a person careless and indifferent. I may also add, that no
inconsiderable number of fires are occasioned by the thoughtless
practice of throwing spirits into the fire. The dresses of females
taking fire adds very much to the list of lives lost by fire, if it
does not exceed all the other causes put together.
Another very general cause of fire is that of approaching with lighted
candles too near bed or window curtains; these, being generally quite
dry, are, from the way in which they are hung, easily set on fire,
and, as the flames ascend rapidly, when once touched, they are in a
blaze in a moment.
It is really astonishing to find that, with daily examples before
their eyes, people should persist (whether insured or not seems to
make little difference) in practices which, there is a hundred chances
to one, may involve both themselves and the neighbourhood in one
common ruin. Of this sort are the practices of looking under a bed
with a lighted candle, and placing a screen full of clothes too near
the fire.
Houses not unfrequently take fire from cinders falling between the
joints of the outer and inner hearths. When smoke is observed to arise
from the floor, the cause should be immediately ascertained, and the
inmates ought on no account to retire to rest while there is the
slightest smell of fire, or any grounds to suspect danger from that
cause.
Occasional fires are caused by a very absurd method of extinguishing
at night the fires kept in grates during the day. Instead of arranging
the embers in the grate in such a way as to prevent their falling off,
and thus allowing the fire to die out in its proper place, they are
frequently taken off and laid on the hearth, where, should there be
wood-work underneath, it becomes scorched, and the slightest spark
falling through a joint in the stones sets it on fire.
A very frequent cause of fire in shops and warehouses arises from the
carelessness of the person intrusted to lock them up. It is no
uncommon practice with those to whom this duty is intrusted, to light
themselves out, or to search for any little article which may have
been mislaid, with a lighted paper, and then to throw it carelessly on
the floor, imagining they have taken every necessary precaution,
merely by setting their foot upon it, forgetting that the current of
air occasioned by shutting the door frequently rekindles it, and
produces the most serious consequences.
In warehouses and manufactories, fires are not unfrequently caused by
the workmen being occasionally kept late at work. By the time their
task is finished, the men are so tired and sleepy, that the
extinguishing of fires and lights is done in a very careless manner. I
recollect an instance of this sort, in which the flames were issuing
from three upper windows, and observed by the neighbours, while the
workmen engaged at their employment in the lower floors knew nothing
of the destruction that was going on above.
A very serious annual loss is also caused by want of due care in
handing up or removing the goods in linen-drapers' shop windows when
the gas is burning. Flues taking fire often result in mischief and it
is believed that many serious fires have arisen from this cause, which
can hardly be called accidental, as, if flues are properly
constructed, kept moderately clean, and fairly used, they cannot take
fire.
From what has been said, it will be seen that care and attention may
do a very great deal towards the prevention of fire, and consequent
loss of life. It is very easy to make good rules, and keep them for a
time, after having been alarmed by some serious loss of property or
life, but the difficulty is to maintain constant attention to the
subject. The most evident plan for effecting this seems to be, for the
masters thoroughly to examine and consider the subject at certain
stated periods, not too far apart, and to constantly warn their
domestics, workmen, or others, of the danger of the improper use of
fires and lights.
One of the greatest preventives of carelessness in the use of fires
and lights would be a legal inquiry in every case, as it would not
only show the faults that had been committed, and thus warn others,
but the idea of being exposed in the newspapers would be another
motive for increased care. This plan has been adopted in New York, and
the reports of the proceedings of Mr. Baker, the "Fire Marshal," show
that the inquiries there made have led to most useful results. Mr.
Payne, the coroner, held inquests on fires in the City of London some
years ago, but the authorities would not allow his expenses, and
therefore they were given up, although believed to be highly
advantageous in explaining accidental and others causes of fire.
_The improper construction of buildings_ more generally assists the
spread than is the original cause of fires, although laying hearths on
timber, and placing timber too near flues, are constant causes of
fire, and it is believed that many melancholy occurrences have arisen
from these and similar sources.
One cause of danger from chimneys arises from the communication which
they often have with each other in one gable. The divisions or
partitions, being very often found in an imperfect state, the fire
communicates to the adjoining chimney, and in this way sometimes wraps
a whole tenement in flames. I know a division of a principal street in
Edinburgh, in which there is scarcely a single chimney-head that is
not more or less in this condition; and I have no doubt that this is
not an uncommon case. There is also great danger from the ends of
joists, safe-lintels, or other pieces of timber, being allowed to
protrude into chimneys. In one instance which came under my notice, a
flue passing under the recess of a window had on the upper side no
other covering than the wood of the floor; of course, when the chimney
took fire the floor was immediately in a blaze: but there are many
instances of such carelessness. It is a common practice amongst
carpenters to drive small pieces of wood into walls for the purpose of
fixing their work, not paying the least attention as to whether the
points run into the flues or not.
In the repairs and alterations of old buildings, house-carpenters are,
if possible, even more careless in this particular, than in the
construction of new.
I know of two different buildings which underwent some alterations. In
both of these, safe-lintels had been run into flues, and both of them,
after the alterations, took fire; the one in consequence of a foul
chimney, which set fire to the lintel; and although the other did not
take fire from the same cause, the lintel was nevertheless very much
scorched, and obliged to be removed.
Great carelessness is frequently exhibited by builders, when erecting
at one time two or three houses connected by mutual gables, by not
carrying up the gables, or party-walls, so as to divide the roofs. I
have seen more than one instance where the adjoining house would have
been quite safe, but for this culpable neglect. It is no uncommon
thing, too, to find houses divided only by lath and standard
partitions, without a single brick in them. When a fire occurs in
houses divided in this manner, the vacuities in the middle of the
partitions act like so many funnels to conduct the flame, thereby
greatly adding to the danger from the fire, and infinitely increasing
the difficulty of extinguishing it.
In London the Building Act forbids all such proceedings, but the
District Surveyors do not seem to have sufficient power, or be able to
pay sufficient attention to such matters, as they are constantly met
with at fires. A very flagrant case of laying a hearth on timber was
lately exposed by a fire in the City. Due notice was given of the
circumstance, but no farther attention was paid to the matter than to
make the proprietor construct the floor properly, although the Act
gave power to fine for such neglect. The omission is to be regretted,
as there could not have been a better case for warning others; it
occurred in a very large establishment, and the work was done by one
of the first builders in the City. Had this fire taken place in the
night and gained some head, it would have been very difficult to have
ascertained the cause. As the premises were situated, a serious loss
of life might have occurred, the apartment in which the fire
originated being the only means of retreat which ten or twelve female
servants had from their bedrooms.
The Metropolitan Building Acts, up to about the year 1825, by
insisting upon party-walls and other precautions, were invaluable for
the prevention of the spread of fires. By them no warehouse was
permitted to exceed a certain area. From the year 1842, the area has
been exchanged for a specified number of cubic feet. But since 1825, a
class of buildings has arisen of which there are now considerable
numbers in the City, called Manchester or piece goods warehouses,
which somehow have been exempted from the law restricting the extent
of warehouses, on the plea that they are _not_ warehouses, because
"bulk is broken" in them, although it is thoroughly understood that
the legislature intended by the Act to restrict the amassing such a
quantity of goods under one roof as would be dangerous to the
neighbourhood.
Manchester and piece goods warehouses have for some time past been
built in London of unlimited size, sometimes equal to twenty average
houses. This is pretty nearly the same as if that number of houses
were built without party-walls, only that it is much worse, for the
whole mass generally communicates by well holes and open staircases,
and thus takes fire with great rapidity, and, from the quantity of
fresh air within the building, the fire makes much greater progress
before it is discovered. By this means the risk of fire in the City
has been greatly increased, not only to such warehouses themselves,
but to the surrounding neighbourhood, for it is impossible to say how
far fires of such magnitude may extend their ravages under untoward
circumstances, there being at present no preventive power in London
capable of controlling them. To provide such a power would be a very
costly business.
Such buildings are also against the generally received rule, that a
man may burn himself and his own property, but he shall not unduly
risk the lives and property of his neighbours.
The new Building Act is likely to repress, to a certain extent, this
great evil, unless its meaning be subverted by some such subterfuge as
destroyed the efficiency of the last one. But what is to be done with
those which are already built? It may seem tedious to dwell so much on
this subject, but it appears to be a risk which is not generally much
thought of, though it is of the most vital importance to the safety of
London. It is very desirable that the metropolis should take warning
by the experience of Liverpool, without going through the fiery ordeal
which the latter city did.
From 1838 to 1843, 776,762_l._ were lost in Liverpool by fire, almost
entirely in the warehouse risks. The consequence was, that the
mercantile rates of insurance gradually rose from about 8_s._ per
cent. to 30_s._, 40_s._, and, it is said, in some cases, to 45_s._ per
cent. Such premiums could not be paid on wholesale transactions,
therefore the Liverpool people themselves obtained an Act of
Parliament, 6 and 7 Vic., cap. 109, by which the size and height of
warehouses were restricted, party walls were made imperative, and
warehouses were not allowed to be erected within thirty-six feet of
any other warehouse, unless the whole of the doors and window-shutters
were made of _wrought iron_, with many similar restrictions. This Act
applied to warehouses already built as well as to those to be built,
and any tenant was at liberty, after notice to his landlord, to alter
his warehouse according to the Act, and to stop his rent till the
expense was paid. Another Act, 6 and 7 Vic., cap. 75, was also
obtained, for bringing water into Liverpool for the purpose of
extinguishing fires and watering the streets _only_. It is supposed
that the works directed, or permitted, by these two Acts, cost the
people of Liverpool from 200,000_l._ to 300,000_l._ Shortly after
these alterations had been made, the mercantile premiums again fell to
about 8_s._ per cent.
There is another very common cause of fire, which seems to come under
the head of construction--viz., covering up a fireplace when not in
use with wood or paper and canvas, &c. The soot falls into the
fireplace, either from the flue itself, or from an adjoining one which
communicates with it. A neighbouring chimney takes fire; a spark falls
down the blocked-up flue, sets fire to the soot in the fireplace,
which smoulders till the covering is burned through, and thus sets
fire to the premises.
In theatres, that part of the house which includes the stage and
scenery should be carefully divided from that where the spectators
assemble by a solid wall carried up to, and through the roof. The
opening in this wall for the stage should be arched over, and the
other communications secured with iron doors, which would be kept shut
while the audience was in the house. By this plan, there would be
abundance of time for the spectators to retire, before fire could
reach that part of the theatre which they occupy.
_The danger from furnaces_ or close fires, whether for heating,
cooking, or manufacturing purposes, is very great, and no flue should
be permitted to be so used, unless it is prepared for the purpose. The
reason is, that in a close fire the whole of the draught must pass
through the fire. It thus becomes so heated that, unless the flue is
properly built, it is dangerous throughout its whole course. In one
instance of a heating furnace, the heat in the flue was found to be
300 deg., at a distance of from forty to fifty feet from the fire. In open
fireplaces, the quantity of cold air carried up with the draught keeps
the flue at a moderate heat, from the fire upwards, and, unless the
flue is allowed to become foul, and take fire, this is the safest
possible mode of heating.
Heating by hot air, steam, and hot water are objectionable. First,
because there must be a furnace and furnace flue, and the flue used is
generally that built for an open fire only; and second, the pipes are
carried in every direction, to be as much out of sight as possible. By
this means they are constantly liable to produce spontaneous ignition,
for there appears to be some chemical action between heated iron and
timber, by which fire is generated at a much lower temperature than is
necessary to ignite timber under ordinary circumstances. No
satisfactory explanation of this fact has yet been given, but there is
abundant proof that such is the case. In heating by hot-water pipes,
those hermetically sealed are by far the most dangerous, as the
strength of the pipes to resist the pressure is the only limit of the
heat to which the water, and of course the pipes, may be raised. In
some cases a plug of metal which fuses at 400 deg. is put into the pipes,
but the heat to which the plug is exposed will depend very much on
where it is placed, as, however great may be the heat of the exit
pipe, the return pipe is comparatively cool. But even where the pipes
are left open, the heat of the water at the furnace is not necessarily
212 deg.. It is almost needless to say that 212 deg. is the heat of boiling
water under the pressure of one atmosphere only; but if the pipes are
carried sixty or seventy feet high, the water in the furnace must be
under the pressure of nearer three atmospheres than one, and therefore
the heat will be proportionately increased. Fires from pipes for
heating by hot water have been known to take place within twenty-four
hours after first heating, and some after ten years of apparent
safety.
The New Metropolitan Building Act prescribes rules for the placing
steam, hot-air, and hot-water pipes at a certain distance from timber;
but as it must be extremely difficult for the District Surveyors to
watch such minute proceedings, it becomes every one who is anxious for
safety to see that the District Surveyors have due notice of any
operation of this kind.
Another cause of fire which may come under this head is the use of
pipes for conveying away the products of combustion. Every one is
acquainted with the danger of stove pipes, but all are not perhaps
aware that pipes for conveying away the heat and effluvia from
gas-burners are also very dangerous when placed near timber. It is not
an uncommon practice to convey such pipes between the ceiling and the
flooring of the floor above. This is highly dangerous. Gas-burners are
also dangerous when placed near a ceiling. A remarkable instance of
this took place lately, where a gas-burner set fire to a ceiling
28-1/2 inches from it.
Another evil of furnaces is, that the original fireplace is sometimes
not large enough to contain the apparatus, and the party wall is cut
into. Perhaps it may be necessary to notice at this point the use of
gas, as it is becoming so very general. Gas, if carefully laid on, and
properly used, is safer than any other light, so far as actually
setting fire to anything goes, but the greater heat given out so dries
up any combustibles within its reach, that it prepares them for
burning, and when a fire does take place, the destruction is much more
rapid than in a building lighted by other means. Gas-stoves, also,
from the great heat given out, sometimes cause serious accidents; in
one instance, a gas-stove set fire to a beam through a two-and-half
inch York landing, well bedded in mortar, although the lights were
five or six inches above the stone. This is mentioned to show that
gas-stoves require quite as much care as common fires.
_Spontaneous ignition_ is believed to be a very fruitful cause of
fires; but, unless the fire is discovered almost at the commencement,
it is difficult to ascertain positively that this has been the cause.
Spontaneous ignition is generally accelerated by natural or artificial
heat. For instance, where substances liable to spontaneous ignition
are exposed to the heat of the sun, to furnace flues, heated pipes, or
are placed over apartments lighted by gas, the process of ignition
proceeds much more rapidly than when in a cooler atmosphere. Sawdust
in contact with vegetable oil is very likely to take fire. Cotton,
cotton waste, hemp, and most other vegetable substances are alike
dangerous. In one case oil and sawdust took fire within sixteen hours;
in others, the same materials have lain for years, until some external
heat has been applied to them. The greater number of the serious fires
which have taken place in railroad stations in and near London have
commenced in the paint stores. In a very large fire in an oil
warehouse, a quantity of oil was spilt the day before and wiped up,
the wipings being thrown aside. This was believed to have been the
cause of the fire, but direct proof could not be obtained. Dust-bins
also very often cause serious accidents. In one instance, 30,000_l._
to 40,000_l._ were lost, apparently from hot ashes being thrown into a
dust-bin.
These accidents may in a great measure be avoided by constant care and
attention to cleanliness, and where paints and oils are necessary, by
keeping them in some place outside the principal buildings. Dust-bins
should, as much as possible, be placed in the open air, and where that
cannot be done, they should be emptied once a day. No collection of
rubbish or lumber of any sort should be allowed to be made in any
building of value.
Mr. Wyatt Papworth, architect, has published some very interesting
notes on spontaneous ignition, giving several well-authenticated
instances.
_Incendiarism_ may be divided into three sorts--malicious, fraudulent,
and monomaniac. Of the former there has been very little in London for
many years. The second, however, is rather prevalent. The insurance
offices, which are the victims, protect themselves as well as they
can, but an inquest on each fire is the true mode of lessening the
evil. This is much more the interest of the public than at first seems
to be the case. In several instances where the criminals were brought
to punishment by Mr. Payne's inquests, people were asleep in the upper
parts of the houses set fire to, and in one case there were as many as
twelve or fifteen persons. This, however, is seldom stated in the
indictment, as, if it is, the punishment is still death by the law,
and it is supposed that a conviction is more easily obtained, by the
capital charge being waived. Monomania is a rare cause of
incendiarism, but still several well-certified cases have occurred in
which no possible motive could be given. In one instance a youth of
fifteen set fire to his father's premises seven times within a few
hours. In another, a young female on a visit set fire to her friend's
furniture, &c., ten or eleven times in the course of one or two days.
In neither case could anything like disagreement or harshness be
elicited, but the reverse. In other instances, it has been strongly
suspected that this disease was the cause of repeated fires, but there
was no positive proof. In all these cases, known or suspected, the
parties were generally from fourteen to twenty years of age.
FIRE-PROOF STRUCTURES.
What is "Fire-proof Construction?" is a question which has given rise
to a great deal of discussion, simply, as it appears to me, because
the size of the buildings, and the quantity and description of the
contents, have not always been taken into account. That which may be
perfectly fireproof in a dwelling house, may be the weakest in a large
warehouse. Suppose an average-sized dwelling-house 20 x 40 x 50 =
40,000 cubic feet, built with brick partitions, stone or slate stairs,
wrought-iron joists filled in with concrete, and the whole well
plastered. Such a house will be practically fire-proof, because there
is no probability that the furniture and flooring in any one room,
would make fire enough to communicate to another. But suppose a
warehouse equal to twenty such houses, with floors completely open,
supported by cast-iron pillars, and each floor communicating with the
others by open staircases and wells; suppose, further, that it is half
filled with combustible goods, and perhaps the walls and ceilings
lined with timber. Now, if a fire takes place below, the moment it
bursts through the upper windows or skylights, the whole place becomes
an immense blast furnace; the iron is melted, and in a comparatively
short time the building is in ruins, and, it may be, the half of the
neighbourhood destroyed. The real fire-proof construction for such
buildings is groined brick arches, supported on brick pillars only.
This mode of building, however, involves so much expense, and occupies
so much space, that it cannot be used with advantage. The next best
plan is to build the warehouses in compartments of moderate size,
divided by party-walls and double wrought-iron doors, so that if one
of these compartments takes fire, there may be a reasonable prospect
of confining the fire to that compartment only. Again, cast iron gives
way from so many different causes, that it is impossible to calculate
when it will give way. The castings may have flaws in them; or they
may be too weak for the weight they have to support, being sometimes
within 10 per cent., or less, of the breaking weight. The expansion of
the girders may thrust out the side walls. For instance, in a
warehouse 120 feet x 75 feet x 80 feet, there are three continuous
rows of girders on each floor, with butt joints; the expansion in this
case may be twelve inches. The tie rods to take the strain of the flat
arches must expand and become useless, and the whole of the lateral
strain be thrown on the girders and side walls, perhaps weak enough
already. Again, throwing cold water on the heated iron may cause an
immediate fracture. For these and similar reasons, the firemen are not
permitted to go into warehouses supported by iron, _when once fairly
on fire_.
Cast and wrought-iron have been frequently fused at fires in large
buildings such as warehouses, sugar houses, &c., but according to Mr.
Fairbairn's experiments on cast iron in a heated state, it is not
necessary that the fusing point should be attained to cause it to give
way.[A] He also states, that the loss of strength in cold-blast cast
iron, in a variation of temperature from 26 deg. to 190 deg. = 164 deg. Fahr., is
10 per cent., and in hot-blast at a variation of from 21 deg. to 190 deg. =
169 deg. Fahr., is 15 per cent.; now if the loss of strength advances in
anything like this ratio, the iron will be totally useless as a
support, long before the fusing point is attained.
Much confidence has been placed in wrought-iron tie or tension rods,
to take the lateral strain of the arches, and also in trusses to
support the beams; but it must be evident that the expansion of the
iron from the heat, would render them useless, and under a high
temperature, it would be so great as to unsettle the brickwork, and
accelerate its fall, on any part of the iron-work giving way: again,
the application of cold water to the heated iron, in an endeavour to
extinguish the fire, is almost certain to cause one or more fractures.
The brick-arching is also very liable to fall, especially if only four
and a half inches thick, independently of the weight which may be
placed upon it, for it is not uncommon after a fire in a large
building, to find the mortar almost completely pulverized to the depth
of three inches, or four inches, from the face of the wall. When a
fire occurred under one of the arches of the Blackwall Railway, on the
15th July, 1843, a portion of the lower ring fell down, and also a few
bricks from the next ring.
Another very serious objection to buildings of this description, is
that, unless scientifically constructed, they are very unlikely to be
safe, even for the common purposes intended, independent of the risk
of fire. In the Report of Sir Henry De la Beche and Mr. Thomas Cubitt
on the fall of the mill at Oldham, in October, 1844,[B] it is stated
that the strength of the iron-beams was within ten per cent. of the
breaking weight. Now according to Mr. Fairbairn's experiments on
heated iron, already referred to, an increase of temperature of only
170 deg. would have destroyed the whole building. It is quite clear,
therefore, that so long as mill-owners and others continue to
construct such buildings without proper advice, they must be liable to
these accidents. In timber-floors there can be no such risk, as the
strains are all direct, and any journeyman carpenter, by following
good examples, can ascertain the size required; and even if he makes a
mistake, the evil is comparatively trivial, as the timber will give
notice before yielding, and may be propped up for the time, until it
can be properly secured. In the case of fire-proof buildings, an
ignorant person may make many mistakes without being aware that he has
done so, and the slightest failure is probably fatal to every one
within the walls. This also increases the difficulty and danger of
extinguishing fires in a large building, as the only method of doing
so is for the firemen to enter it with their branches, and in case of
the floors falling, there is no chance of escape. On the other hand,
timber-floors have repeatedly fallen while the firemen were inside the
building, and they have made their escape uninjured.
In a pamphlet published by Mr. S. Holme, of Liverpool, in 1844,[C] and
which contains a report from Mr. Fairbairn on fire-proof buildings, it
is stated, that many people, especially in the manufacturing
districts, are their own architects; that the warehouses in Liverpool
may be loaded to one ton per yard of flooring; and that unless great
care and knowledge are used in the construction of fire-proof
buildings, they are of all others the most dangerous.[D]
The following are the principles on which Mr. Fairbairn proposes to
build fire-proof warehouses:--
The whole of the building to be composed of non-combustible
materials, such as iron, stone, or bricks.
In order to prevent fire, whether arising from accident or
spontaneous combustion, every opening, or crevice,
communicating with the external atmosphere to be closed.
An isolated staircase, of stone, or iron, well protected on
every side by brick, or stone walls, to be attached to every
story, and be furnished with a line of water-pipes,
communicating with the mains in the street, and ascending to
the top of the building.
In a range of stores, the different warehouses to be divided
by strong partition-walls, in no case less than eighteen
inches thick, and no more openings to be made than are
absolutely necessary for the admission of goods and light.
That the iron columns, beams, and brick arches be of
strength sufficient, not only to support a continuous dead
pressure, but to resist the force of impact to which they
are subject by the falling of heavy goods upon the floors.
That in order to prevent accident from the columns being
melted by intense heat in the event of fire in any of the
rooms, a current of cold air should be introduced into the
hollow of the columns, from an arched tunnel under the
floors.
There is no doubt that if the second principle could be carried out,
namely, the total exclusion of air, the fire would go out of itself;
but it seems, to say the least of it, very doubtful indeed if this can
be accomplished, and if it could, the carelessness of a porter leaving
open one of the doors or windows, would make the whole useless. The
fifth principle shows that Mr. Fairbairn has omitted to allow for the
loss of strength the iron may sustain from the increase of
temperature. The last principle would not be likely to answer its
purpose, even if it was possible to keep these tunnels and hollow
columns clear for a number of years, which is scarcely to be expected.
A piece of cast-iron pipe, one-and-a-half inch in diameter, was heated
for four minutes in a common forge, both ends being carefully kept
open to the atmosphere, when, on one end being fixed in a vice, and
the other pulled aside by the hand, it gave way.
One of the principal objections to the kind of fire-proof buildings
above described, is, that absolute perfection in their construction is
indispensable to their safety; whereas buildings of a more common
description are comparatively safe, although there may be some errors
or omissions in their construction. Indeed, Mr. Fairbairn states in
the same Report, that "it is true that negligence of construction on
the one hand, and want of care in management on the other, might
entail risk and loss to an enormous extent."
The following is a very clear proof of the inability of cast iron to
resist the effects of fire:--
"A chapel in Liverpool-road, Islington, seventy feet in length and
fifty-two feet in breadth, took fire in the cellar, on the 2nd
October, 1848, and was completely burned down. After the fire, it was
ascertained that of thirteen cast-iron pillars used to support the
galleries, only two remained perfect; the greater part of the others
were broken into small pieces, the metal appearing to have lost all
power of cohesion, and some parts were melted. It should be observed,
that these pillars were of ample strength to support the galleries
when filled by the congregation, but when the fire reached them, they
crumbled under the weight of the timber only, lightened as it must
have been by the progress of the fire."
In this case it mattered little whether the pillars stood or fell, but
it would be very different with some of the large wholesale warehouses
in the City, where numbers of young men sleep in the upper floors; in
several of those warehouses the cast-iron pillars are much less in
proportion to the weight to be carried than those referred to, and
would be completely in the draught of a fire. If a fire should
unfortunately take place under such circumstances, the loss of human
life might be very great, as the chance of fifty, eighty, or one
hundred people escaping in the confusion of a sudden night alarm, by
one or two ladders, to the roof, could scarcely be calculated on, and
the time such escape must necessarily occupy, independent of all
chance of accidents, would be considerable.
For the reasons here stated, I submit that large buildings, containing
considerable quantities of combustible goods, with floors of
brick-arches, supported by cast-iron beams and columns, are not,
practically speaking, fire-proof; and that the only construction which
would render large buildings fire-proof; where considerable quantities
of combustible goods are deposited, would be groined brick-arches,
supported by pillars of the same material, laid in proper cement. I am
fully convinced, from a lengthened experience, that the intensity of a
fire,--the risk of its ravages extending to adjoining premises, and
also the difficulty of extinguishing it, depend, _caeteris paribus_, on
the cubic contents of the building which takes fire, and it appears to
me that the amount of loss would be very much reduced, if, instead of
building immense warehouses, which give the fire a fortified position,
warehouses were made of a moderate size, with access on two sides at
least, completely separated from each other by party-walls, and
protected by iron-doors and window-shutters. In the latter case, the
probability is, that not more than one warehouse would be lost at a
time, and perhaps that one would be only partially injured.
It is sincerely to be hoped that the clause in the last Metropolitan
Building Act, restricting the size of warehouses, may be more
successful than its predecessor, for it is not only property that is
at stake, but human life. In many of these "Manchester warehouses,"
there are fifty or one hundred and upwards of warehousemen and
servants sleeping in the upper floors, whose escape, in case of fire,
would be very doubtful, to say the least of it.[E]
Covering timber with sheet-iron is very often resorted to as a
protection against fire. I have never found it succeed; but Dr.
Faraday, Professor Brande, Dr. D. B. Reid, and Mr. W. Tite, M.P., are
of opinion that it may be useful against a sudden burst of flame, but
that it is worse than useless against a continued heat.
In wadding manufactories the drying-rooms were frequently lined with
iron-plates, and when a fire arose there, the part covered with iron
was generally found more damaged than the rest; the heat got through
the sheet-iron, and burnt the materials behind it, and there was no
means of touching them with water until the iron was torn down; sheet
iron should not, therefore, be used for protecting wood.
Even cast iron, one inch thick, laid on tiles and cement three inches
thick, has allowed fire to pass through both, to the boarding and
joisting below, merely from the fire in an open fire-place being taken
off and laid on the hearth. This arises from iron being so good a
conductor that, when heat is applied to it, it becomes in a very short
time nearly as hot on the one side as the other. If the smoke escapes
up a chimney, or in any other way, there may be a serious amount of
fire before it is noticed.
In a fire at the Bank of England, the hearth on which the stove was
placed was cast iron an inch thick, with two-and-a-half inches of
concrete underneath it; but the timber below that was fired.
With regard to the subject of fire-proof dwelling-houses of average
size, I consider that such houses when built of brick or stone, with
party-walls carried through the roof; the partitions of brick, the
stairs of slate or stone, the joists of wrought iron filled in with
concrete, and the whole well plastered, are practically fire-proof
because, as stated at the opening of this chapter, there is no
probability that the furniture and flooring in any one room would make
fire enough to communicate to another. The safest manner of heating
such houses is with open fire-places, the hearths not being laid upon
timber. Stone staircases, when much heated, will fracture from cold
water coming suddenly in contact with them; but in a dwelling-house
built as described above, there is very little chance of such a
circumstance endangering human life, even with wooden steps carried
upon brick walls, and rendered incombustible by a ceiling of an inch
and a quarter of good hair mortar and well pugged, all the purposes of
safety to human life would be attained.
There is a particular description of floor, which, although not
altogether fire-proof, is certainly (at least so far as I can judge),
almost practically so for dwelling-houses. It is composed simply of
plank two and a-half or three inches thick, so closely joined, and so
nicely fitted to the walls, as to be completely air-tight. Its
thickness and its property of being air-tight, will be easily observed
to be its only causes of safety. Although the apartment be on fire,
yet the time required to burn through the floor above or below, will
be so great, that the property may be removed from the other floors,
or, more probably, if the means of extinguishing fire be at hand, it
may be subdued before it can spread to any other apartment. The doors
must of course be made in proportion, and the partitions of brick or
stone.
Before closing the subject of fire-proof structures, I will add a few
words upon fire-proof safes. These are all constructed with double
casings of wrought iron, the interstices being in some filled with
non-combustible substances, such as pumice stone and Stourbridge clay,
and in others with metal tubes, that melt at a low temperature, and
allow a liquid contained in them to escape, and form steam round the
box, with the intention of preventing the heat from injuring the
contents. Such safes I have never found destroyed; and in some cases,
after large fires, the whole of the contents have been found
uninjured, while the papers in common safes, merely made strong enough
to prevent their being broken into, were generally found consumed.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote A: _Vide_ Seventh Report of the British Association, 1837,
vol. vi. page 409.]
[Footnote B: _Vide_ Report on the Fall of the Cotton Mill, at Oldham,
and part of the Prison at Northleach, page 4. Folio. London: Clowes
and Sons, 1845.]
[Footnote C: _Vide_ Report of W. Fairbairn, Esq., on the Construction
of Fire-proof Buildings. With introductory Remarks by Samuel Holme,
page 11, _et seq._ Tract, 8vo. Liverpool: T. Baines, 1844.]
[Footnote D: The Author has been informed by Mr. Farey, M. Inst. C.E.,
that a fire took place, in 1827, in a mill belonging to Mr. Marshall,
of Leeds, the whole of which, with the exception of the roof, was
fire-proof. The upper floor was filled with flax, which took fire; the
roof fell in, and the heat so affected the iron beams of the floor, as
to cause them to give way.]
[Footnote E: In the year 1858, when reporting to the Insurance Offices
upon the Warehouses in the Metropolitan Docks, Mr. Braidwood made the
following suggestions which are applicable to all large buildings.
That all the party-walls where the roofs do not rise above the wall,
should be 3 feet 6 inches above such roof. That all the party-walls in
the valleys of the roofs should be raised to the level of the highest
ridge on either side, all openings in such walls being closed by
wrought-iron doors on each side of the walls, at least a quarter of an
inch thick in the panels, and such openings not to exceed 42
superficial feet in the clear. That all windows which look upon other
windows, or loop-hole doors in other warehouses or compartments,
within 100 feet, should be bricked up, or have wrought-iron shutters
at least 3/16th of an inch thick in the panels.
That all loop-hole doors similarly situated should be made entirely of
wrought iron, frames included, or bricked up. That all shafts for
lifts or other purposes, should be of brick, with wrought-iron doors
where necessary to receive or deliver goods, and that all openings
whatever for machinery should be included in such shaft. That every
hatchway or opening in the floors for "shooting" goods from floor to
floor should have a strong flap _hinged on_ to the floor, to be closed
when not in use, especially at night.
That there should be direct access to every room, of every
compartment, of every warehouse, from a fire-proof staircase, by iron
doors, and that all such staircases should enter from the open air, as
well as from under any warehouse on the quay; in the latter case the
doors must be of iron only.
All the windows in the entresol and ground floors to be bricked up, or
have iron shutters, and the doors and frames to be of iron.
Wherever the warehouses face each other within 100 feet, the front
parapet walls to be carried up to the level of the ridge of the roof.
When it is stated in this report that the windows or loop-hole doors
should be bricked up, it is not meant to exclude the use of thick
glass, three or four pieces being built into each door or window
space, not exceeding 6 inches in diameter or square, in the clear, and
set in the mortar or cement at least 3/4 of an inch all round, the
glass to be not less than 1-1/2 inches thick, flat on both sides, and
so placed that no goods can be stored within 18 inches of the inner
surface.
There should be a tank on the top of each staircase, with a tap from
it on each landing, with six fire buckets hung near it, and three
small hand pumps in every staircase; the officers and workpeople
seeing these every day would be certain to run to them in case of
fire, and by having a constant supply of water on every floor small
accidents might be extinguished at once, and the iron doors and roofs
kept cool in case of one room taking fire.]
FIRE EXTINCTION, INCLUDING FIRE BRIGADES, FIRE ENGINES, AND WATER
SUPPLY.
Before entering upon the subject of Public Fire Brigades, I will call
attention to the course to be pursued by inmates of the house on fire,
and their neighbours.
When all available means of fire prevention have been adopted, the
next thing to be considered is a supply of water. In the country, or
where there are no water-pipes or engines, this ought to be
particularly attended to, and a hand-pump should be provided. Where no
water is kept solely for the purpose of extinguishing fire, such
vessels as can be spared should be regularly filled every night, and
placed in such situations as may be most convenient in case of danger;
and no master of a family ought to retire to rest, without being
satisfied that this has been attended to. If it had no other advantage
than merely that of directing the inmates of a house to the
possibility of such an occurrence as fire, it would be worth much more
than the trouble such an arrangement would cost; but, in addition to
that, a supply of water would be at hand, in most cases more than
sufficient to extinguish the fire immediately on its being discovered,
and before it had become either alarming or dangerous. But when no
such precaution has been adopted, when even the bare possibility of
fire has not been considered, when no attention has even been paid to
the subject, and no provision made for it; the inhabitants are
generally so alarmed and confused, that the danger is probably over,
by their property being burned to the ground, before they can
sufficiently recollect themselves to lend any effective assistance.
In most cases of fire, the people in whose premises it occurs are
thrown into what may be called a state of temporary derangement, and
seem to be actuated only by a desire of muscular movement, no matter
to what purpose their exertions are directed. Persons may often be
seen toiling like galley-slaves, at operations which a moment's
reflection would show were utterly useless. I have seen tables,
chairs, and every article of furniture that would pass through a
window, three or four stories high, dashed into the street, even when
the fire had hardly touched the tenement. On one occasion I saw
crockery-ware thrown from a window on the third floor.[F]
Most of these extravagances take place on the first alarm. When the
engines have got fairly into play, people begin to recollect
themselves, and it is at this time that most of those "who go to see a
fire" arrive. By the exertions of the police there is then generally a
considerable degree of order restored, and the most interesting part
of the scene is over.
What remains, however, may, from its novelty or grandeur, if the fire
is extensive, be still worth looking at for a little, but much of the
excitement is banished with the confusion; and if the fire and firemen
seem to be well matched, the chief interest which is excited in the
spectators is to ascertain which of the parties is likely to be
victorious. Few people, comparatively, have thus an opportunity of
witnessing the terror and distraction occasioned by the first alarm of
fire, and this may probably account for the apathy and indifference
with which people who have not seen this regard it.
When a fire actually takes place, every one should endeavour to be as
cool and collected as possible; screams, cries, and other exhibitions
of terror, while utterly useless in themselves, have generally the
effect of alarming those whose services might otherwise be of the
utmost advantage, and of rendering them unfit for useful exertion. It
is unhappily, too, at the commencement of fires, that this tendency to
confusion and terror is the strongest, when a bucket of water,
properly applied, is generally of more value than a hundred will be
half an hour afterwards. It is the feeling of total surprise, on the
breaking out of a fire, which thus unhinges the faculties of many
individuals. They have never made the case their own, nay, one would
almost imagine they had scarcely thought such an occurrence possible,
till, coming on them almost like a thunderbolt, they are lost in
perplexity and terror. The only preventive against this is to think
the matter over frequently and carefully before it occurs.
The moment it is ascertained that fire has actually taken place,
notice should be sent to the nearest station where there is a
fire-engine. No matter whether the inmates are likely to be able to
extinguish the fire themselves--this should never be trusted to if
more efficient help can be had.
It is much better that an engine should be turned out twenty times
when it is not wanted, than be once too late. This may cause a
trifling expense; but even that expense is not altogether lost, as it
teaches the firemen steadiness and coolness.
The person in the house best qualified for such duty should endeavour
to ascertain, with as much precision as possible, the extent and
position of the fire, while the others collect as much water as they
can. If the fire be in an upper floor, the inmates should be got out
immediately, although the lower part of the house may generally be
entered with safety for some time. If in the lower part of the house,
after the inmates have been removed, great care should be observed in
going into any of the upper floors, as the flames very often reach the
stair before being observed by those above. The upper floors are,
besides, generally filled with smoke, and, in that case, there is
great danger of suffocation to those who may enter.
This, indeed, is the principal danger attending fires, and should be
particularly guarded against, as a person, when being suffocated, is
unable to call for assistance. In a case of this kind the fire took
place in the third floor from the street, and all the inmates
immediately left the premises except one old woman. In about fifteen
minutes after the arrival of the engines, the firemen made their way
upstairs, and the poor woman was found dead beside a basket partly
filled with clothes, which it was supposed she had been packing up for
removal; had she made any noise, or even broke a pane of glass, she
would, in all probability, have been saved; as the fire never touched
the floor in which she was found, she must have died entirely from
suffocation, which a little fresh air would have prevented. Had the
slightest suspicion existed that any one was in the upper floors, they
would have been entered by the windows or the roof; but as the fire
took place in daylight, and none of the neighbours spoke of any one
being in the house, it was thought unnecessary to damage the property,
or risk the lives of the firemen, without some adequate cause. This,
however, shows how little dependence can be placed on information
received from the inmates of the premises on fire. Some of the people
who lived on the same floor with this poor woman, and who had seen her
immediately before they left the house, never mentioned her. I do not
suppose that this negligence arose from apathy, or any feeling of that
sort; but the people were in such a state of utter confusion, that
they were unable to think of anything. But to return.
On the first discovery of a fire, it is of the utmost consequence to
shut, and keep shut, all doors, windows, or other openings. It may
often be observed, after a house has been on fire, that one floor is
comparatively untouched, while those above and below are nearly burned
out. This arises from the door on that particular floor having been
shut, and the draught directed elsewhere. If the person who has
examined the fire finds a risk of its gaining ground upon him, he
should, if within reach of fire-engines, keep everything close, and
await their arrival, instead of admitting air to the fire by
ineffectual efforts to oppose it with inadequate means. In the
meantime, however, he should examine where a supply of water is most
likely to be obtained, and communicate that, and any other local
information, to the firemen on their coming forward. If there be no
fire-engine within reach, the person who has examined the fire should
keep the place where it is situated as close as possible, till as many
buckets of water as can be easily collected are placed within his
reach.
Taking care always that there is some one ready to assist him, he
should then open the door, and creep forward on his hands and knees
till he gets as near the fire as possible; holding his breath, and
standing up for a moment to give the water a proper direction, he
should throw it with force, using a hand pump if available, and
instantly get down to his former position, where he will be again able
to breathe. The people behind handing forward another bucket of water,
he repeats the operation till the fire is quenched, or until he feels
exhausted; in which case some one should take his place. If there be
enough of water, however, two, three, or any convenient number of
people may be employed in throwing it; on the contrary, if the supply
of water be insufficient to employ even one person, the door should be
kept shut while the water is being brought, and the air excluded as
much as possible, as the fire burns exactly in proportion to the
quantity of air which it receives.
One great evil, and which ought to be strictly guarded against by
people not accustomed to fire, is, that on the first alarm they exert
themselves to the very utmost of their strength. This, of course, can
last but a short time; and when they feel tired, which in that case
soon happens, they very often give up altogether. Now this is the
reverse of what it ought to be. In extinguishing fires, like most
other things, a cool judgment and steady perseverance are far more
effective than any desultory exertions which can be made.
The heat generally increases in a considerable degree when water is
first thrown upon a fire, from the conversion of a portion of it into
steam. This is sometimes very annoying; so much so, that the persons
engaged in throwing the water, frequently feel themselves obliged to
give back a little. They should on no account, however, abate or
discontinue their exertions in throwing the water with as much force
as possible in the direction of the fire; it will in a short time cool
the air and materials, and the steam will, in consequence, be
generated more slowly, while a steady perseverance on the part of
those employed can alone effect the object in view.
When water is scarce, mud, cow or horse dung, damp earth, &c., may be
used as substitutes; but if there seems no chance of succeeding by any
of these, and the fire is likely to extend to other buildings, the
communication should be immediately cut off by pulling down the
building next to that on fire. Any operation of this sort, however,
should be begun at a sufficient distance from the fire to allow the
communication to be completely cut off, before it gains upon the
workmen. If this operation be attempted so near the fire as to be
interrupted by it, it must be begun again at a greater distance; and,
in that case, there is a greater destruction of property than might
have been necessary.
If a fire occur in a stable or cow-house, surrounded with other
buildings of the same description, or with the produce of a farm,
there is much danger. The cattle and horses should be immediately
removed; and, in doing so, if any of them become restive, they should
be blindfolded, taking care that it is done thoroughly, as any attempt
to blindfold them partially, only increases the evil. They should be
handled as much as possible in the ordinary manner, and with great
coolness; the violent gestures and excited appearance of the persons
removing them tending greatly to startle the animals, and render them
unmanageable.
PUBLIC FIRE BRIGADES AND THE DUTIES OF FIREMEN.
The best public means of arresting fires is a very wide question, as
the only limit to the means is the expense. Different nations have
different ways of doing the same thing. On the Continent generally,
the whole is managed by Government, and the firemen are placed under
martial law, the inhabitants being compelled to work the engines. In
London, the principal means of arresting fires is a voluntary
association of the insurance companies, without legal authority of any
sort, the legal protection by parish engines being, with a few
praiseworthy exceptions, a dead letter.
In Liverpool, Manchester, and other towns, the extinction of fires by
the pressure of water only, without the use of fire-engines, is very
much practised. The advantages of this system are very great; but, to
enable us to follow this system in London, the whole water supply
would require to be remodelled.
In America, the firemen are generally volunteers, enrolled by the
local Governments. They are exempt from other duties, or are entitled
to privileges, which appear to satisfy them, as the situation of
fireman is eagerly sought in most of the American cities.
Which is the best of these different modes it is difficult to say;
perhaps each is best suited for the place where it exists.
It is now generally admitted, that the whole force brought together to
extinguish a fire ought to be under the direction and control of one
individual. By this means, all quarrelling among the firemen about the
supply of water, the interest of particular insurance companies, and
other matters of detail, is avoided. By having the whole force under
the command of one person, he is enabled to form one general plan of
operations, to which the whole body is subservient; and although he
may not, in the hurry of the moment, at all times adopt what will
afterwards appear to be the best plan, yet it is better to have some
general arrangement, than to allow the firemen of each engine to work
according to their own fancy, and that, too, very often in utter
disregard as to whether their exertions may aid or retard those of
their neighbours. The individual appointed to such a situation ought
not to be interfered with, or have his attention distracted, except by
the chief authority on the spot, or the owner of the premises on fire.
Much valuable information is frequently obtained from the latter, as
to the division of the premises, the party-walls, and other matters
connected with its locality. But, generally speaking, the less
interference and advice the better, as it occupies time which may
generally be better employed.
I need scarcely add, that on no account whatever should directions be
given to the firemen by any other individual while the superintendent
of brigade is present; and that there may be no quarrelling about
superiority, the men should be aware on whom the command is to devolve
in his absence.
It has often been to me a matter of surprise, that so small a portion
of the public attention should be directed to the matter of
extinguishing fires. It is only when roused by some great calamity
that people bestir themselves; and then there is such a variety of
plans proposed to avert similar cases of distress, that to attempt to
concoct a rational plan out of such a crude, ill-digested, and
contradictory mass of opinion, requires more labour and attention than
most people are inclined to give it, unless a regular business was
made of it. In Paris the corps of military firemen are so well
trained, that although their apparatus is not so good as it should be,
the amount of the losses by fire is comparatively trifling. If the
head-quarters of such an establishment were to be in London, a store
of apparatus, constructed on one uniform plan, could be kept there, to
be forwarded to any other part of the kingdom where it might be
required. This uniformity of the structure and design of the apparatus
could extend to the most minute particulars; a screw or a nut of any
one engine would fit every other engine in the kingdom. A depot could
also be kept at head-quarters, where recruits would be regularly
drilled and instructed in the business, and a regular system of
communication kept up with all the provincial corps. Any particular
circumstances occurring at a fire would thus be immediately reported,
and the advantages of any knowledge or experience thus gained, would
be disseminated over the whole kingdom. As the matter at present
stands one town may have an excellent fire-engine establishment, and
another within a few miles a very indifferent one, and when the one is
called to assist the other, they can neither act in concert, nor can
the apparatus of the one in case of accident be of the smallest
service in replacing that of the other. The best might (if a proper
communication were kept up) be under frequent obligations to the
worst, and here, as in other matters, it is chiefly by communication
that knowledge is increased. If the whole experience of the country
were brought together, and maturely considered and digested by persons
competent to judge, I have no doubt that a system might be introduced
suitable to the nation and to the age in which we live. Instead of
hearing of the "_dreadful losses by fire_," and the "_great
exertions_" made to extinguish it, all the notice would be, such a
place took fire, the engines arrived, and it was extinguished.
It would be useless for me to enter into the details of a plan which I
have little hope of ever seeing realized. I may state, however, that a
premium might be offered for the best engine of a size previously
agreed upon, which, when finished, should be kept as a model.
Specifications could then be made out, and estimates advertised for,
for all the different parts, such as wheels, axles, levers, cisterns,
barrels, air-vessels, &c., separately. When any particular part of an
engine was damaged, it could be immediately replaced, and the engine
again rendered fit for service; and upon emergency any number of
engines could be set up, merely by putting the different parts
together. The work would also be better done; at least it would be
much more easy to detect faults in the materials or workmanship than
if the engines were bought ready for use. These remarks apply to all
the rest of the apparatus.
It could be provided that firemen might be enlisted for a term of
years. When enlisted, they would be sent to the depot at
head-quarters, drilled to the use of the engines, and carefully
instructed in separating and cleaning the different parts. Here also
they could be practised in gymnastic exercises, and generally
instructed in everything tending to promote their usefulness as
firemen. They could then be sent off to some large towns, and, after
having seen a little active service, distributed over the country in
such parties as might be deemed necessary for the places they were
intended to protect.
The practice of keeping fire-engines at noblemen's and gentlemen's
residences, and at large manufactories in the country, is by no means
uncommon, and I have no doubt that many more would supply themselves
in this way if they knew where to apply for information in such
matters; but the great fault lies in the want of persons of skill and
experience to work them when fire occurs. In the way I have mentioned,
proprietors and others could have one or more of their workmen
instructed in this necessary piece of duty; and I have no doubt that
many gentlemen would avail themselves of the means of instructing some
of their servants.
It will be observed, I do not propose that the firemen who are
enlisted, drilled, and instructed in the business, should be sent to
the different stations in sufficient numbers to work the engines; this
part of the work can be performed by any man accustomed to hard
labour, as well as by the most expert fireman, and the local
authorities could easily provide men for this purpose. In small towns,
where fires are rare, the novelty would draw together plenty of hands;
and in large towns, where the inhabitants are not sufficiently
disinterested to work for nothing, there are always plenty who could
be bound to assist in cases of fire at a certain rate per hour, to be
paid upon a certificate from the fireman who has charge of the engine
at which they worked. The trained firemen would thus be required only
for the direction of the engine, attaching the hose, &c.
I am quite aware that many people object to the training of firemen;
but it would be just as reasonable to give to a mob all the "materiel"
of war, and next day expect it to act like a regular army, as to
expect engines to be managed with any general prospect of success,
unless the men are properly trained and prepared for the duty which is
expected from them. Fire is both a powerful and an insidious enemy,
and those whose business it is to attack it will best succeed when
they have become skilful and experienced in the use of their arms.
It is quite obvious that a fire brigade, however complete in its
apparatus and equipments, must depend for its efficiency on the state
of training and discipline of the firemen. Wherever there is
inexperience, want of co-operation, or confusion amongst them, the
utmost danger is to be apprehended in the event of fire. It is amidst
the raging of this destructive element, the terror and bustle of the
inhabitants, that organization and discipline triumph, and it is
there, too, that coolness and promptitude, steadiness and activity,
fearlessness and caution, are peculiarly required; but, unfortunately,
it is then also that they are most rarely exhibited.
There should not be less than five or six men attached to each engine,
who should be properly instructed and drilled, to take charge of it,
and to guide the people who work at the levers.
The person having the principal charge of the engines should
frequently turn over in his mind what might be the best plan, in such
and such circumstances, supposing a fire to take place. By frequently
ruminating on the subject, he will find himself, when suddenly turned
out of bed at night, much more fit for his task than if he had never
considered the matter at all. Indeed he will frequently be surprised,
when examining the premises afterwards (_which he ought always to do,
and mark any mistakes he may have committed_), that he should have
adopted the very best mode of extinguishing the fire, amid the noise,
confusion, and the innumerable advices showered down on him, by all
those who consider themselves qualified or entitled to give advice in
such matters; a number, by the way, which sometimes includes no
inconsiderable portion of the spectators. He should also make himself
well acquainted with the different parts of the town in which he may
be appointed to act, and notice the declivities of the different
streets, &c. He will find this knowledge of great advantage.
Any buildings, supposed to be particularly dangerous, should be
carefully examined, and all the different places where supplies of
water can be obtained for them noticed.
A knowledge of the locality thus obtained will be found of great
advantage in case of a fire breaking out. Indeed all firemen,
especially those having the charge of engines, should be instructed
carefully to examine and make themselves acquainted with the
localities of their neighbourhood or district. Such knowledge will
often prove valuable in emergencies; the proprietors or tenants of the
property on fire being sometimes in such a state of alarm, that no
distinct intelligence can be got from them.
When an engine is brought to a fire, it ought to be placed as nearly
as possible in a straight line between the supply of water and the
premises on fire; taking care, however, to keep at such a distance
from the latter that the men who work the pumps may be in no danger
from being scorched by the heat, or of being annoyed by the falling of
water or burning materials. Running the engine close upon the fire
serves no good purpose, except to shorten the quantity of hose that
would otherwise be required. The addition of twenty or thirty feet of
hose makes very little difference in the working of the engine, and,
when compared with the disadvantage of the men becoming unsteady from
the idea of personal danger, is not even to be named. Indeed, if the
engine be brought too near the fire, there is danger of the men
quitting the levers altogether. I may also add that, both for the
safety of the hose and the convenience of the inhabitants, the engine
should be kept out of the way of people removing furniture.
When the hose is attached and the engine filled with water, the man
who holds the branch-pipe, accompanied by another, should get so near
the fire, inside the house, _that the water from the branch may strike
the burning materials_. If he cannot accomplish this standing, he must
get down on his hands and knees and creep forward, those behind
handing up the hose. A stratum of fresh air is almost always to be
depended on from six to twelve inches from the floor, so that if the
air be not respirable to a person standing upright, he should
instantly get down. I have often observed this fact, which indeed is
well known; but I once saw an example of it which appeared to me to be
so striking, that I shall here relate it. A fire had broken out in the
third floor of a house, and when I reached the top of the stair, the
smoke was rolling in thick heavy masses, which prevented me from
seeing six inches before me. I immediately got down on the floor;
above which, for a space of about eight inches the air seemed to be
remarkably clear and bright. I could distinctly see the feet of the
tables and other furniture in the apartment; the flames in this space
burning as vivid and distinct as the flame of a candle, while all
above the smoke was so thick that the eye could not penetrate it. The
fire had already burst through three out of five windows in the
apartment, yet, when lying flat on the floor, no inconvenience was
felt except from the heat.
When the fire has broken through a floor, the supply of air along that
floor is not to be depended on--the fire drawing the principal supply
of air from the apartments below.
When the two first firemen have gained a favourable position, they
should keep it as long as they are able; and when they feel exhausted,
the men behind them should take their place.
The great point to which everything ought to be made subservient is,
_that the water on its discharge from the branch-pipe should actually
strike the burning materials_. This cannot be too often or too
anxiously inculcated on every one connected with a fire-engine
establishment. Every other method not having this for its grand
object, will, in nine cases out of ten, utterly fail; and upon the
degree of attention paid to this point, depends almost entirely the
question as to the amount of damage the fire will occasion.
When approaching a fire, it should always be done by the door, if
possible. When this is attended to, it is much easier to shift the
hose from one apartment to another; and the current of fresh air,
entering by the door and proceeding along the passages, makes
respiration easier and safer than elsewhere.
When entrance by the door is impracticable, and access is to be gained
by a window, the flames frequently burst through in such a manner as
to render advance in the first instance impossible. In that case, the
branch should be pointed against the window, nearly in a perpendicular
direction; the water striking the lintel, and falling all round inside
the window, will soon extinguish the fire at that point sufficiently
to render an entrance practicable.
The old plan of standing with the branch pipe in the street, and
throwing the water into the windows is a very random way of going to
work; and for my own part, although I have seen it repeatedly tried, I
never saw it attended with success. Indeed it is hardly to be expected
that water, thrown from the street into a room three or four storeys
high, can have any impression on closets, presses, or passages,
divided probably with brick partitions in the centre of the house. The
circumstance of having engines at work on both sides of the house does
not alter the case. The fire very often burns up through the centre,
and frequently, when the space between the windows is large, along the
front or back wall, till it arrives at the roof, which the water
cannot touch on account of the slates or tiles. On the other hand,
when the firemen enter the house, the fire is almost wholly under
their command. And when it happens that there is any corner which the
water cannot directly strike, the fire in it may often be extinguished
by throwing the water against an opposite wall or partition, and
trusting to the recoil to throw it to the point required.
When the water is thrown from the street, it is impossible to say
whether it touches the parts on fire or not. No one can tell anything
about it, except when the flame appears at the windows.
On going with the branch inside the house, besides the advantage of
the water rushing directly from the hose upon the fire, there is a
great saving in the article of water itself. The whole that is thrown
by the engine is applied to the right purpose. No part of it is lost;
that which does not strike the burning materials falls within the
house; and, by soaking those parts on which it falls, prevents their
burning so rapidly when the flames approach them.
If, on entering an apartment, it be found that the flames cover a
considerable space, it is of advantage, in some instances, to place
the point of the thumb in contact with the water at the nozzle of the
branch. By this means the water may be spread to cover any space under
twenty or thirty feet, according to the pressure applied.
While speaking of the mode of entering houses on fire, I may mention
that I have tried several inventions for the purpose of elevating the
branch pipe and hose to the level of a second or third story window.
But these, although exceedingly ingenious, appear to me to rest on a
principle entirely wrong; I mean that of throwing water on the fire
from the outside of the building.
Independent altogether of a mistaken principle of usefulness, one
insuperable objection to all these machines, is the difficulty of
conveying them with the necessary celerity, and the impossibility of
packing them on the engine in such a manner that it may be worked
without their being taken off, as it seems to me _that every
description of apparatus which cannot be conveyed along with the
engine, is likely to be left behind when most wanted_. It is notorious
that parish fire-ladders are, for this reason, seldom or never made
use of.
Many people object to going inside a building on fire on account of
the danger. It ought never to be forgotten, however, that the danger
increases with the delay; and that although at first there may be no
danger, if the opportunity is not promptly seized, it may become very
considerable.
Several of the firemen have at different times fainted, or become
stupefied, from the want of fresh air; but as no one is ever allowed
to enter singly, they have been, in all cases, immediately observed by
their comrades, and relieved.
Another objection has been raised in the alleged difficulty of
persuading men to risk their lives in this manner for the small
consideration which is allowed them. The truth is, that any
persuasions I have had occasion to use, have been generally on the
other side.
To hold the branch is considered the post of honour; and when two
engines are working together, I have sometimes difficulty in
preventing the men from pressing forward farther than is absolutely
necessary. This forwardness is not the result of pecuniary reward for
the increase of risk, but a spirit of emulation is at work, and the
man entrusted with this duty, if found drawing back, would be
completely disgraced.
A retreat should in all cases be kept open, to provide against any
accident that may occur; and as this may be done in almost all cases
by means so easy and simple, there can be no excuse for its omission.
At the same time no one but an expert fireman should be permitted to
enter where there is personal danger.
The danger to which firemen are most exposed is catching cold, from
their being so frequently drenched with water, and from their exposure
to the sudden alternations of heat and cold. A man is turned out of
bed at midnight, and in a few minutes after quitting it he is exposed
to the sharp air, perhaps, of a frosty winter night; running to the
fire as fast as he can, he is, from the exercise, joined to the
oppressive heat inside the place on fire, in a few minutes in a state
of the most profuse perspiration; and, while in this state, he is
almost certain to be soaked with cold water. The smoke is sometimes so
thick, that he comes under the range of the branch of the engine
without being aware of it till the water strikes him. If he escape
this chance, the water rushing on some other object, recoils on him,
and produces the same effect; and if the fire be in the roof of the
apartment, he must lie down on his back on the floor, and in this
manner gets completely steeped.
A bath of this sort is neither very safe nor pleasant; and the only
preventive of injury to the health is to keep the men in constant
motion. When they are allowed to stand still or sit down, the danger
is considerable. When the fire is extinguished, or in two or three
hours after its commencement, I make it a rule to give every man a
dram of spirits. If it be necessary to leave an engine on the spot,
those of the men who are to remain are sent home to change their
clothes.
THE LONDON FIRE BRIGADE.
The London Fire Brigade now (January, 1861) consists of one
superintendent, four foremen, each being appointed to a district
consisting of a fourth part of London, which he never leaves except on
some very pressing emergency, and who, in the absence of the
superintendent, has the sole command of all engines, or firemen,
within, or who may come within, his district; twelve engineers, ten
sub-engineers, forty-seven senior firemen, and forty-three junior
firemen: in all, one hundred and seventeen individuals. In addition,
there are fifteen drivers and thirty-seven horses, all living at the
several stations, and ready when required. There is also a
supplementary force of four extra firemen, four drivers, and eight
horses living at the stations, pursuing their usual avocations, and
only paid by the Committee when required. The mechanical appliances
consist of twenty-seven large engines drawn by horses, eight small
engines drawn by hand, two floating-engines worked by steam, one of
forty-horse power, and the other of eighty-horse power, one land steam
fire-engine, and twenty-eight hand-pumps, one of the latter being
carried on each engine. When an engine is sent to a fire, only four
firemen and one driver accompany it. The levers are worked by the
by-standers, who are paid one shilling for the first hour, and
sixpence for each succeeding hour, besides refreshments. Upwards of
six hundred assistants have been thus employed at one time. The
principal protection of London against fire is entirely voluntary on
the part of the insurance companies, to whom the above establishment
belongs; there being no law in any shape whatever to control or
sustain the brigade; and with the exception of some fifteen or twenty,
the parish-engines are comparatively useless at a serious fire. It
must not be omitted, that the greatest possible assistance is given to
the firemen by the police, of whom there are about 7000, in keeping
back the crowd, &c. The fire-offices look upon the whole as a matter
of private business, so that the brigade is proportioned quite as must
to the amount which the offices think it prudent to spend as to the
size of the place. Paris, which is not half the size of London, and
the buildings of which are much more substantial, has upwards of 800
firemen. It appears to me that any success which the brigade may have
attained depends, in a great measure, on the liberal pay given, by
which the best men for the purpose can be obtained, the favourable
view in which the brigade is regarded by the public, and the willing
and able assistance given by a numerous and perhaps the best police in
existence.
The firemen in London being constantly employed on weekly wages, give
their whole time to their employers, and are much more under command
than where men are only occasionally employed. The wages and treatment
being liberal, although the discipline is severe, there are generally
a considerable number of candidates for each vacancy. Thus good men
are obtained, seamen being preferred, as they are taught to obey
orders, and the night and day watches and the uncertainty of the
occupation are more similar to their former habits, than to those of
other men of the same rank in life. The large number of fires is,
however, the principal cause of any advantage the London firemen may
possess over those of smaller places; and it is hardly fair to compare
firemen who have only an opportunity of attending one or two fires in
a week, to those who attend nearly three fires a day.
The firemen are drilled first daily, and then two or three times a
week, for some months; and this, with an average of three calls a day,
soon makes them acquainted with the routine of their business; but it
takes years of constant work to make a thoroughly good fireman.
The management of the London Fire Brigade is confided to a Committee,
consisting of one of the directors or secretaries from each of the
fire-offices in London.
The superintendent has the command of the whole force.
The town is divided into four districts, in each of which there are
stationed a sufficient number of engines, under the charge of a
foreman, with engines and firemen under him.
The districts are as follows:--
NORTH SIDE OF RIVER.
District A. From the eastward to Paul's Chain, St. Paul's
Churchyard, Aldersgate-street, and Goswell-street-road.
B. From St. Paul's, &c., to Tottenham-court-road,
Crown-street, and St. Martin's-lane.
C. From Tottenham-court-road, &c., westward.
D. South side of River.
The men are clothed uniformly; are distinguished by numbers
corresponding with their names in the books; and regularly exercised
in the use of their engines, and in such other duties as the Committee
or Superintendent may direct.
The following general regulations do not contain rules of conduct
applicable to every variety of circumstance that may occur to
individuals in the performance of their duty, as something must always
be left for the exercise of intelligence and discretion; and,
according to the degree in which these qualities in members of the
Establishment are combined with zeal and activity, they become
entitled to future promotion and reward.
It is strongly impressed upon the minds of all persons serving in the
Establishment, that one of the greatest advantages which the present
system possesses above that which it superseded, is derived from the
embodying the whole force under one responsible officer. It is,
therefore, incumbent upon the men to render prompt and cheerful
obedience to the commands of their superiors; to execute their duties
as steadily and quietly as possible; to be careful not to annoy the
inhabitants of houses they may be called upon to enter, and to treat
all persons with civility; to take care to preserve presence of mind
and good temper, and not to allow themselves to be distracted from
their duty by the advice or directions of any persons but their own
officers, and to observe the strictest sobriety and general regularity
of behaviour.
As every man wears the uniform of the Establishment, which is marked
with a number corresponding with his name in the books, he must
constantly bear in mind that misconduct will not only reflect
discredit upon the Establishment, but be easily brought home to
himself and subject him to proportional punishment.
The men are particularly cautioned not to take spirituous liquors from
any individual without special permission of the superintendent, or,
in his absence, of the foreman of the district; and as intoxication
upon the alarming occasion of fires is not only disreputable to the
Establishment, but in the highest degree dangerous, by rendering the
men unfit for duty, every appearance of it is most rigidly marked, and
the foremen, engineers, and sub-engineers report immediately, for the
purpose of being laid before the Committee, every instance of
insubordination or intoxication, and the men are accordingly apprised
that the regulations regarding the above-mentioned faults will be most
strictly enforced.
All the men in the Establishment are liable to be punished by fine,
suspension, reduction, or dismissal, for disobeying or neglecting any
of these regulations, or for any other misconduct; and the disposal of
the fines so collected is at the discretion of the Committee.
The following are the conditions upon which each man is admitted into
the Establishment:--
He devotes his whole time to the service.
He serves and resides wherever he is appointed.
He must promptly obey all orders which he may receive from
those placed in authority over him.
The age of admission does not exceed twenty-five, nor is
under eighteen.
He conforms himself to all regulations which may be made
from time to time.
He does not upon any occasion, or under any pretence
whatever, take money from any person, without the express
permission of the Committee.
He appears at all times in the dress of the Establishment.
If lodgings be found for him, a deduction of one shilling
per week is made from his pay, if unmarried; if married, and
if lodgings be found for him, an agreement in each
particular case will be made.
He receives his pay weekly on such day as shall be
appointed.
The pay of a Junior Fireman is 3_s._ per day, or 21_s._ a
week.
The pay of a Senior Fireman, 3_s._ 6_d._ a day, or 24_s._
6_d._ a week.
The pay of a Sub-Engineer is 26_s._ a week.
The pay of an Engineer, 4_s._ a day, or 28_s._ a week.
The Foremen are paid by annual salaries.
Each man contributes towards a Superannuation Fund,
according to a scale determined by the Committee.
Each man receives annually--
One short frock coat, marked with a number answering to his name
in the books.
A black neckcloth.
Two pairs of cloth trousers.
One cloth cap.
Four pairs of boots in three years, and
Once in three years he receives--
One great coat.
He does not quit the service without giving fourteen days'
previous notice; if he quits without such notice, or is
dismissed, the whole of his pay then due is forfeited.
Every man who is dismissed from the Establishment, or who
resigns his situation, delivers up, before he quits the
service, every article of dress and appointment which may
have been supplied to him; if any of such articles have
been, in the opinion of the superintendent, improperly used
or damaged, the man makes good the damage or supplies a new
article.
Every man in the service is liable to immediate dismissal
for unfitness, negligence, or misconduct. The Committee, if
they see fit, may dismiss a man without assigning any
reason.
No fireman must allow to be used by any other person, nor
use himself, except while he belongs to the Establishment,
the button and badge given with his clothes.
In the event of sickness rendering any man incapable of
performing his duties, the Committee reserves to itself the
power of making a deduction from his weekly pay.
Each man, on his admission, gives to the Committee, if
required, a letter of guarantee from some respectable
person, to an amount not exceeding 50_l._, as security.
OUTLINE OF GENERAL DUTY.
One-third of the men are constantly on duty at the different
engine-houses, night and day; and the whole are liable to be called up
for attendance at fires, or for any other duty. In general, it is
arranged as follows, viz.:--
If a fire happen in District A, the whole of the men and engines of
that district immediately repair to the spot; two-thirds of the men,
and one of the engines, from each of the districts B and D, also go to
the fire; and one-third of the men from the district C.
If the fire happen in B, the whole of the men and engines in that
district immediately repair to the fire; one engine from A, another
from C, two-thirds of the men from A and C, and one-third of the men
from D.
If the fire happen in C, the whole of the men and engines in that
district, one engine and two-thirds of the men from the district B,
and one-third of the men from A and D, go to the fire.
If the fire happen in D, the whole of the men and engines in that
district, with one engine and two-thirds of the men from the district
A, and one-third of the men from B and C, shall go to the fire.
If a fire happen on the boundary of a district, and it is doubtful in
which district it has occurred, the whole of the engines and men of
the two adjoining districts instantly proceed to the spot, and
one-third of the men of the two remaining districts.
In case of emergency, the superintendent calls in such additional
force as he may require.
The engines are not taken to alarms of chimneys on fire, unless the
circumstances of the case should, in the opinion of the
superintendent, foreman, or engineer, require a deviation from this
regulation.
When any of the men from another district come to assist at a fire, if
the engine to which they are attached is not in attendance, they
instantly go to the foreman's engine of the district to which they
come.
The engines are conveyed to fires at not less than seven miles per
hour, and the men who do not accompany the engines go at not less than
four miles per hour.
Any engineer or fireman who, when at a fire, is absent from an engine
or a branch pipe, without orders from the superintendent or foreman,
is liable to a fine.
If any of the men are sick, or absent from any other cause, their
duties are performed by other men attached to their engine-station.
With a view to the men being always at hand, they are lodged as near
as possible to their respective engine-houses.
The roll is called at each station every morning and evening.
No man leaves his own residence or the engine-station to which he
belongs from 10 P.M. to 6 A.M. except to go to a fire, or by an order
from a superior, or with written leave from the superintendent, and
the senior man on duty is answerable if he does not report any
departure from this rule.
Men on duty not at the engine-stations are allowed one hour for
breakfast and one for dinner, as follows:--One-half of the men on duty
go to breakfast from 8 to 9, and the other half from 9 to 10; also
one-half go to dinner from 1 to 2, and the other half from 2 to 3. The
second half in no case leave until the whole of the first half have
returned, neither do the men on duty leave morning or evening until
the relief has arrived. The engineer or senior man on duty is
answerable for this regulation being carried into effect. And any man
being absent from the premises he is watching or working in, except at
the regular hours, is punished.
The men for duty individually assemble at the principal engine-house
in the district before, or precisely at, the hour fixed for that
purpose. Their names are called, and an inspection made by the foreman
of the district, to ascertain that they are sober and correctly
dressed and appointed. The foreman then reads and explains the orders
of the day. At the hour for relieving the men, no one leaves his
engine-house until the relief has actually arrived there; when the men
are relieved, their names are called over, and they are inspected by
the engineer, that he may ascertain whether they are sober, and as
correctly dressed and appointed as when they went on duty. The
engineer enters these inspections in a book.
The engineers deliver a written report, according to a printed form,
twice each day, to the foreman of the district, who in his turn
reports twice a day to the superintendent.
The whole of the men are, at all times, ready to appear at any place
required, for exercise or any other purpose, and are ready (whether on
duty or not) to execute whatever orders they may receive, in relation
to the Establishment, from the engineers, foremen, or superintendent.
DUTIES OF SUPERINTENDENT.
The Superintendent resides at the principal engine-station in
Watling-street.
The moment an alarm of fire is given, wherever it may be, he repairs
to the spot with all possible expedition, and takes the command of the
whole force.
He endeavours to ascertain the cause of the fire, and reports the same
to the committee.
He is responsible for the general conduct of the foremen, engineers,
and firemen under his charge.
He makes himself well acquainted with the character and conduct of
every man under his orders.
He must be firm and just, and, at the same time, kind and conciliating
in his behaviour on all occasions.
He takes care that the printed regulations and all others given out
from time to time, are promptly and strictly obeyed; and he gives
clear and precise instructions to the men under him, and reports every
instance of neglect of a serious nature to the Committee.
He must feel the importance of visiting some of the engine-houses, at
uncertain hours, every day and night.
He suspends and reports to the Committee persons who are guilty of
serious misconduct; and at once punishes by fines, according to a
scale sanctioned by the Committee, irregularities of a lighter
character, reporting such fines to them.
He must be at all times prepared to furnish the Committee with
particulars respecting the state of the Establishment.
When a fire is extinguished, the superintendent retains only such a
number of men and engines as he may think necessary for watching the
premises.
He communicates with the surveyors of stock of the offices interested
in a fire, and arranges with them, in the event of its being
necessary, to work out salvage from the ruins.
When a fire happens, he causes a report to be made immediately, if in
office hours (or, if after office hours, before ten o'clock next
morning), to those offices interested in the fire, and also to their
surveyors of buildings and stock, as soon as possible after the fire
is extinguished, and causes a daily report to be transmitted to each
office of all fires which have happened, according to a printed form
given to him for that purpose, as follows:--
Date and hour.
Situation of premises.
Name and occupation of tenant.
Name and residence of landlord.
Supposed cause of fire.
In what offices insured.
No. of Policy.
If there is gas on the premises.
By whom called.
By whom extinguished.
Supply of water, with name of company.
No. of engines attending and of what district, and the order
in which they arrive.
No. of men ditto ditto.
Engines not of the Establishment, and the order in which
they arrive.
Description of damage.
DUTIES OF FOREMAN.
The Foreman resides at the place appointed for him.
He receives his orders and instructions from, and makes his reports
to, the superintendent.
He must set an example to the men of alacrity and skill in the
discharge of his duty, and of regularity in his general behaviour.
In the absence of the superintendent, the foreman of the district will
take the command of the whole force, both those of his own district
and of all other engines and men which may come to his assistance in
cases of fire.
He does not attend fires that happen out of his own district unless he
receives orders from the superintendent to that effect.
He endeavours to ascertain the cause of the fire, and reports the same
to the superintendent.
On the alarm of fire being given in his own district, he instantly
repairs to the spot, and uses his utmost endeavours to get the engines
into play and supply them with water. The first engine and firemen
which arrive at a fire are not interfered with, nor their supplies of
water diverted from them, by those coming afterwards, unless by a
distinct order from the superintendent, or, in his absence, from the
foreman of the district. The same rule applies to each succeeding
engine which takes up a position.
He is careful to place the engines in such a manner that the men who
work at the levers may be in no danger from the falling of the
premises on fire; and also that the engines may not be in the way of
people carrying out furniture, &c.; but, above all things, he
endeavours to place the engineers with their branch pipes in such
positions _that the water from the branches may directly strike the
burning materials_. This he cannot too often inculcate on the men
placed under him, as upon this point, on being properly attended to,
depends entirely the effect of the engines. To attain this most
desirable end, it is frequently necessary to enter the premises on
fire, and the foreman takes care so to place his men that they can
easily escape. If he has reason to suspect that the building is not
sufficiently secure, he stations one or two competent men to observe
the state of the building, and to give the alarm when they see any
danger.
He never allows any man unaccompanied by another to enter a building
on fire.
He does not throw more water on the premises than is absolutely
necessary to extinguish the fire, as all the water thrown after the
fire is extinguished, only tends to increase the damage.
When the inmates of the premises on fire are removed, the foreman
endeavours to exclude air from the parts on fire, by shutting all
doors and windows as far as may be practicable.
He is responsible for the conduct of the men placed under him, and for
the state of the engines, which must at all times be kept in
first-rate order; he also makes himself well acquainted with the
talent and general character of each individual under him.
He visits every engine-house in his district at least once in the
twenty-four hours; he sees that the men are on duty, the engines ready
for service, and everything in proper order, and enters his visit in a
book kept for that purpose, with the date and hour of his visit. If he
finds anything wrong, he enters it in the book, and immediately sends
off a report to the superintendent by one of the men not on duty.
He sends a written report twice in every twenty-four hours to the
superintendent, which contains a particular statement of all fires and
everything else connected with the Establishment which has occurred in
his district within the preceding twelve hours.
He returns in his report of a fire the names of such men, if any, as
were not ready to start with the engine to which they are attached.
It is expected that he is able and ready to give instructions to the
engineers and men on all points relating to their duty.
He receives and enters, in a book kept for that purpose, all
complaints which may be made against any person under his command,
causing the complaining party to sign the same and insert his address,
and he reports the whole matter without delay to the superintendent.
He is responsible for the engines in his district being each provided
with the articles contained in the following list:--
2 lengths of scaling ladder.
1 canvas sheet, with 10 or 12 handles of rope round the edge
of it, used as a portable fire-escape.
2 pieces of 2-1/2-inch rope, one 10 fathoms and one 14
fathoms long.
7 lengths of hose, each 40 feet long.
2 branch pipes, one 4 and the other 1 foot long.
3 nozzles, or jet pipes.
4 lengths of suction-pipe, each about 6 feet long.
1 flat rose.
1 standcock.
1 goose-neck.
2 balls of strips of sheep-skin.
2 balls of small cord.
4 hose wrenches.
1 fire hook.
1 mattock.
1 shovel.
1 saw.
1 screw-wrench.
1 portable cistern.
1 hatchet or pole-axe.
1 iron crow-bar.
DUTIES OF THE ENGINEER.
He resides in the engine-house to which he is appointed.
He obeys all orders given to him by the superintendent or the foreman
of the district.
He must set an example to the men of alacrity and skill in the
discharge of his duty, and of regularity in his general behaviour.
He is held responsible for the conduct of the men under him, and for
the state of his engine, and takes care that it is provided with the
articles contained in the foregoing list.
He reports to his foreman, every morning and evening, in writing,
whether any of his men have been absent with or without leave.
He enters in his book the time when the men go to the foreman's
station before taking duty, and also when they return.
On receiving notice of a fire happening within the prescribed limits,
he instantly takes his engine and men to the spot, and places himself
and them at the disposal of the superintendent, foreman, or senior
engineer of the district in which the fire happens.
He must make himself acquainted with the character and abilities of
each man under him.
He is subject to fines at the discretion of the Committee, for neglect
of duty or misbehaviour.
DUTIES OF SUB-ENGINEERS.
The sub-engineers being attached to foremen's and double stations
only, in the absence of the foremen or engineer, or when in charge of
an engine, the duties of the sub-engineer are the same as those
described for an engineer; when the foreman or engineer is absent, the
sub-engineer must set an example to the firemen at the station of
constant attention, implicit obedience and activity, and in so far as
he exhibits these and similar qualifications he expects to rise in the
service.
DUTIES OF THE FIREMAN.
Every fireman in the establishment may expect to rise to the superior
stations, by activity, intelligence, sobriety, and general good
conduct.
He must make it his study to recommend himself to notice by a diligent
discharge of his duties, and strict obedience to the commands of his
superiors, recollecting that he who has been accustomed to obey will
be considered best qualified to command.
He resides near the engine-house to which he is attached, in a
situation to be approved of, and devotes the whole of his time and
abilities to the service.
On the alarm of fire, he proceeds with all possible speed to the
engine-house to which he is attached.
He must at all times appear neat in his person, and correctly dressed
in the establishment uniform, and be respectful in his demeanour
towards his superiors.
He must readily and punctually obey the orders of the engineers,
foremen, and superintendent.
He must not quit his engine-house while on duty, except to go to a
fire, unless by special order from a superior.
He is subject to fines for neglect of duty or misbehaviour, according
to the regulations.
BOOKS KEPT AT THE STATIONS.
There is a book kept in each engine-house, in which are entered all
fires or alarms of fires; the time the men come on duty; the visits
made by the foremen, superintendent, or any of the Committee, and all
complaints against the men.
This book is in charge of the superior on duty at the time; and the
foreman and engineers are answerable for its being correctly kept.
Every entry made in this book is signed by the person making it.
The superintendent enters, in a book kept for that purpose, the
particulars of every fire, the attendance of engines, supply of water,
&c., and lays it before the Committee weekly, or oftener, if required.
Any false entry, for the purpose of concealing absence, is
punished--for the first offence, by the reduction of one step, and for
the second by dismissal.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote F: At a fire which took place in one of the best streets in
Edinburgh, and which began in the roof, the persons who rushed into
the house on the first alarm being given, threw the greater part of
the contents of the drawing-room and library, with several basketsful
of china and glass, out of the windows; the fire injured nothing below
the uppermost story.]
THE EDINBURGH FIRE BRIGADE.
In forming the brigade in Edinburgh, where the firemen are only
occasionally employed, the description of men, from which I made a
selection, were slaters, house-carpenters, masons, plumbers, and
smiths.
Slaters make good firemen, not so much from their superiority in
climbing, going along roofs, &c., although these are great advantages,
but from their being in general possessed of a handiness and readiness
which I have not been able to discover in the same degree amongst
other classes of workmen. It is, perhaps, not necessary that I should
account for this, but it appears to me to arise from their being more
dependent on their wits, and more frequently put to their shifts in
the execution of their ordinary avocations. House-carpenters and
masons being well acquainted with the construction of buildings, and
understanding readily from whence danger is to be apprehended, can
judge with tolerable accuracy, from the appearance of a house, where
the stair is situated, and how the house is divided inside. Plumbers
are also well accustomed to climbing and going along the roofs of
houses; they are useful in working fire-cocks, covering the gratings
of drains with lead, and generally in the management of water. Smiths
and plumbers can also better endure heat and smoke than most other
workmen.
Men selected from these five trades are also more robust in body, and
better able to endure the extremes of heat, cold, wet, and fatigue, to
which firemen are so frequently exposed, than men engaged in more
sedentary employments.
I have generally made it a point to select for firemen, young men from
seventeen or eighteen to twenty-five years of age. At that age they
enter more readily into the spirit of the business, and are much more
easily trained, than when farther advanced in life. Men are frequently
found who, although they excel in the mechanical parts of their own
professions, are yet so devoid of judgment and resources, that when
anything occurs which they have not been taught, or have not been able
to foresee, they are completely at a loss. Now it happens not
unfrequently that the man who arrives first at a fire, notwithstanding
any training or instructions he may have received, is still, from the
circumstances of the case, left almost entirely to the direction of
his own judgment. It is, therefore, of immense importance to procure
men on whose coolness and judgment you can depend. If they are expert
tradesmen, so much the better, as there is generally a degree of
respect shown to first-rate tradesmen by their fellows, which inferior
hands can seldom obtain; and this respect tends greatly to keep up the
character of the corps to which they belong, which ought never to be
lost sight of.
Amidst the noise and confusion which more or less attend all fires, I
have found considerable difficulty in being able to convey the
necessary orders to the firemen in such a manner as not to be liable
to misapprehension. I tried a speaking-trumpet; but, finding it of no
advantage, it was speedily abandoned. It appeared to me indeed, that
while it increased the sound of the voice, by the deep tone which it
gave, it brought it into greater accordance with the surrounding
noise. I tried a boatswain's call, which I have found to answer much
better. Its shrill piercing note is so unlike any other sound usually
heard at a fire, that it immediately attracts the attention of the
firemen. By varying the calls, I have now established a mode of
communication not easily misunderstood, and sufficiently precise for
the circumstances to which it is adapted, and which I now find to be a
very great convenience.
The calls are as follows:--
1 for red, 2 for blue, 3 for yellow, 4 for grey.[G]
5 to work the engine.
6 to stop working.
7 to attach one length of hose more than the engine has at
the time the call is given.
8 to coil up the hose attached to the engine.
9 to coil up the hose attached to the fire-cock.
10 to turn to the left.
11 to turn to the right.
12 the call to work the engine answers also to move forward
when the engine is prepared for travelling.
13 the call to stop working answers to stop the engine when
moving forward.
In all there are thirty-six calls when compounded with the first four.
In speaking of the drilling of firemen, I shall give a short account
of the plan followed here, which has been tolerably successful.
The present number of firemen in Edinburgh is fifty, divided into four
companies; three of which consist of twelve and one of fourteen men.
The bounds of the city are divided into four districts; in each of
which there is an engine-house, containing one or more engines, one of
the companies being attached to each engine-house. In each company
there is one captain, one sergeant, four pioneers, and six or eight
firemen.
The whole are dressed in blue jackets, canvas trousers, and hardened
leather helmets, having hollow leather crests over the crown to ward
off falling materials. The form of this helmet was taken from the
war-helmet of the New Zealanders, with the addition of the hind flap
of leather to prevent burning matter, melted lead, water, or rubbish
getting into the neck of the wearer. The captains' helmets have three
small ornaments, those of the sergeants one--those of the pioneers and
firemen being plain.
The jackets of the captains have two small cloth wings on the
shoulder, similar to those worn by light infantry. Those of the
sergeants have three stripes on the left arm, and, on the left arms of
the pioneers and firemen, are their respective numbers in the company.
Each company has a particular colour--red, blue, yellow, and grey.
Each engine is painted of one or other of these colours, and the
accoutrements of the men belonging to it correspond. There is thus no
difficulty in distinguishing the engines or men from each other by
their colours and numbers. Each man also wears a broad leather
waist-belt, with a brass buckle in front. To the waist-belts of the
captains, sergeants, and pioneers is attached eighty feet of cord; the
captains having also a small mason's hammer, with a crow-head at the
end of the handle: the sergeants have a clawed hammer, such as is used
by house-carpenters, with an iron handle, and two openings at the end
for unscrewing nuts from bolts; the pioneers a small hatchet, with a
crow-head at the end of the handle; and the firemen each carry a
canvas water-bucket folded up.
The captains assemble every Tuesday night, to give in a report of such
fires as may have occurred in their respective districts, with a list
of the men who have turned out, and a corresponding list from the
sergeant of police of the respective districts. They then receive any
orders which may be necessary; and any vacancies which have occurred
in the establishment are filled up at these meetings.
For some months after this fire establishment was organized, the men
were regularly drilled once a week, at four o'clock in the morning;
but now only once a month at the same hour.
Among many other good reasons for preferring this early hour, I may
mention, that it does not interfere with the daily occupation of the
firemen. The chance of collecting a crowd is also avoided, as there
are then comparatively few people on the streets; this is a matter of
some importance, as a crowd of people not only impedes the movements
of the firemen, but, from small quantities of water spilt on the
by-standers, quarrels are generated, and a prejudice excited against
the corps, to avoid which every exertion should be used to keep the
firemen on good terms with the populace.
The mornings, too, at this early hour, are dark for more than half the
year, and the firemen are thus accustomed to work by torch-light, and
sometimes without any light whatever, except the few public lamps
which are then burning. And, as most fires happen in the night, the
advantage of drilling in the dark must be sufficiently obvious.
The inhabitants have sometimes complained of being disturbed with the
noise of the engines at so early an hour; but when the object has been
explained, they have generally submitted, with a good grace, to this
slight evil. A different part of the city being always chosen for each
successive drill, the annoyance occasioned to any one district is very
trifling, and of very unfrequent occurrence.
On the Tuesday evening preceding the drill, the captains are informed
when and where the men are to assemble. These orders they communicate
to the individual firemen. A point of rendezvous being thus given to
the whole body, every man, who is not on the spot at the hour
appointed, fully equipped, with his clothes and accoutrements in good
order, is subjected to a fine. Arrived on the ground, the men are
divided into two parties, each party consisting of two companies, that
being the number required to work each large engine without any
assistance from the populace. The whole are then examined as to the
condition of their clothing and equipments.
The captains, sergeants, and pioneers of each company alternately take
the duty of directing the engine, attaching the hose, &c., while the
whole of each party not engaged in these duties take the levers as
firemen. The call is then given to move forward, the men setting off
at a quick walking pace, and, on the same call being repeated, they
get into a smart trot. When the call to stop is given, with orders to
attach one or more lengths of hose to the engine and fire-cock, it is
done in the following manner:--No. 1 takes out the branch pipe, and
runs out as far as he thinks the hose ordered to be attached will
reach, and there remains; No. 2 takes a length of hose out of the
engine, and uncoils it towards No. 1; and No. 3 attaches the hose to
the engine. If more than one length is required, No. 4 takes out
another, couples it to the former length, and then uncoils it. If a
third length is wanted, No. 3 comes up with it, after having attached
the first length to the engine. If more lengths are still wanted, No:
2 goes back to the engine for another; Nos. 3 and 4 follow, and so on
till the requisite length is obtained; No. 1 then screws on the
branch-pipe at the farther extremity of the last length.[H] While Nos.
1, 2, 3, and 4 are attaching the hose to the engine, No. 5 opens the
fire-cock door, screws on the distributor, and attaches the length of
hose, which No. 6 uncoils; Nos. 7 and 8 assist, if more than one
length of hose be required. Immediately on the call being given to
attach the hose, the sergeant locks the fore-carriage of the engine,
and unlocks the levers. The fire-cock being opened by No. 5 (who
remains by it as long as it is being used), the sergeant holds the end
of the hose which supplies the engine, and at the same time
superintends the men who work the levers. The call being given to work
the engine, the whole of the men, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, the captain
and sergeant excepted, work at the levers along with the men of the
other company.
Although these operations may appear complicated, they are all
completed, and the engine in full play, with three lengths, or 120
feet of hose, in one minute and ten seconds, including the time
required for the water to fill the engine so far as to allow it to
work.
In order to excite a spirit of emulation, as well as to teach the men
dexterity in working the engines, I frequently cause a competition
amongst them. They are ordered to attach one or more lengths of hose
to each of two engines, and to work them as quickly as possible, the
first engine which throws water being considered the winner. They are
sometimes also placed at an equal distance from each of two separate
fire-cocks; on the call being given to move forward, each party starts
for the fire-cock to which it is ordered, and the first which gets
into play is of course held to have beat the other. The call to stop
is then given, and both parties return to their former station, with
their hose coiled up, and everything in proper travelling order; the
first which arrives being understood to have the advantage.
The men are also carefully and regularly practised in taking their
hose up common-stairs, drawing them up by ropes on the outside, and
generally in accustoming themselves to, and providing against, every
circumstance which may be anticipated in the case of fire.
When a fire occurs in a common-stair, the advantages arising from this
branch of training are incalculable. The occupants, in some cases
amounting to twenty or thirty families, hurrying out with their
children and furniture, regardless of everything except the
preservation of their lives and property, and the rush of the crowd to
the scene of alarm, form altogether, notwithstanding the exertions of
an excellent police, such a scene of confusion as those only who have
witnessed it can imagine; and here it is that discipline and unity of
purpose are indispensable; for, unless each man has already been
taught and accustomed to the particular duty expected from him, he
only partakes of the general alarm, and adds to the confusion. But
even when a hose has been carried up the interior of a common-stair,
the risk of damage from the people carrying out their furniture is so
great, that the hose is not unfrequently burst, almost as soon as the
engine has begun to play. If the hose be carried up to the floor on
fire by the outside, the risk of damage is comparatively small, the
hose in that case being only exposed for a short distance in crossing
the stair.
During a period of four years the only two firemen who lost their
lives were run down by their own engines; and, in order to avoid
danger from this cause, they are frequently accustomed suddenly to
stop the engines when running down the steep streets with which this
city abounds. It is a highly necessary exercise, and is done by
wheeling the engine smartly round to the right or left, which has the
effect of immediately stopping its course.
There is a branch of training which I introduced amongst the Edinburgh
firemen some time ago, which has been attended with more important
advantages than was at first anticipated. I mean the gymnastic
exercises. The men are practised in these exercises (in a small
gymnasium fitted up for them in the head engine-house) regularly once
a-week, and in winter sometimes twice: attendance on their part is
entirely voluntary; the best gymnasts (if otherwise equally qualified)
are always promoted in cases of vacancy.
So sensible were the Insurance Companies doing business here, of the
advantages likely to arise from the practice of these exercises, that
on one occasion they subscribed upwards of 10_l._, which was
distributed in medals and money among the most expert and attentive
gymnasts of the corps, at a competition in presence of the
magistrates, commissioners of police, and managers of insurance
companies.
Amongst the many advantages arising from these exercises I shall
notice only one or two. The firemen, when at their ordinary
employments, as masons, house-carpenters, &c., being accustomed to a
particular exercise of certain muscles only, there is very often a
degree of stiffness in their general movements, which prevents them
from performing their duty as firemen with that ease and celerity
which are so necessary and desirable; but the gymnastic exercises, by
bringing all the muscles of the body into action, and by aiding the
more general development of the frame, tend greatly to remove or
overcome this awkwardness. But its greatest advantage is the
confidence it gives to the men when placed in certain situations of
danger. A man, for example, in the third or fourth floor of a house on
fire, who is uncertain as to his means of escape, in the event of his
return by the stair being cut off, will not render any very efficient
service in extinguishing the fire; his own safety will be the
principal object of his attention, and till that is to a certain
extent secured, his exertions are not much to be relied upon. An
experienced gymnast, on the other hand, placed in these circumstances,
finds himself in comparative security. With a hatchet and eighty feet
of cord at his command, and a window near him, he knows there is not
much difficulty in getting to the street; and this confidence not only
enables him to go on with his duty with more spirit, but his attention
not being abstracted by thoughts of personal danger, he is able to
direct it wholly to the circumstances of the fire. He can raise
himself on a window sill, or the top of a wall, if he can only reach
it with his hands; and by his hands alone he may sustain himself in
situations where other means of support are unattainable, till the
arrival of assistance. These are great advantages; but, as I said
before, the greatest of all is that feeling of safety with which it
enables a fireman to proceed with his operations, uncertainty or
distraction being the greatest of possible evils. The cord carried at
the waist-belt of the captains, sergeants, and pioneers, being fully
sufficient to sustain a man's weight, and with the assistance of their
small hatchets easily made fast, and the pioneers always being two
together, there is thus no difficulty in descending even from a height
of eighty feet: the cords should be doubled by way of security.
I.--GENERAL REGULATIONS OF THE EDINBURGH FIRE BRIGADE.
A list of the engine-houses, and the residences of the superintendent
and head enginemen in each district shall be publicly advertised, that
no one may be ignorant where to apply in cases of fire; and, in the
event of fire breaking out in any house, the possessor shall be bound
to give instant notice of it at the nearest station; and shall take
particular care to keep all doors and windows shut in the premises
where the fire happens to be.
"Fire-engine house" shall be painted in large characters on one or
more prominent places of each engine-house; and the residences of the
master of engines, head enginemen, inspectors of gas companies, and
water-officers of the district, shall likewise be marked there.
The head enginemen and firemen shall reside as near the engine-house
as possible.
As, in the case of a fire breaking out, it may be necessary to break
open the doors of houses and shops in the neighbourhood, in order to
prevent the fire from spreading, it is ordered, that no possessors of
houses or shops in the neighbourhood shall go away, after the fire has
broken out, without leaving the key of their house or shop, as
otherwise the door will be broken open, if necessary; and it is
recommended that all possessors of shops shall have the place of their
residence painted upon their shop-doors, that notice may be sent them
when necessary.
II.--POLICE.
Upon any watchman discovering fire, he shall call the neighbouring
watchmen to his assistance--shall take the best means in his power to
put all concerned upon their guard--and shall immediately send off
notice to the nearest office and engine-house. The watchman, who is
despatched to give these intimations, shall run as far as he can, and
shall then send forward any other watchman whom he may meet, he
himself following at a walk to communicate his information, in case of
any mistake on the part of the second messenger.
Upon intimation of a fire being received at the main office, or a
district office, the head officer on duty shall instantly give notice
thereof to the head engineman of the district, to the master of
engines, to the water-officers of the district, and to the inspectors
of the different gas-light companies, and shall have power, if his
force at the office at the time be deficient, to employ the nearest
watchmen for these purposes; and, on intimation being first received
at a district-office, the officer on duty in the office shall
immediately send notice to the main office.
Upon intimation being received at the main office, the officer on duty
shall also instantly send notice to the superintendent of police, and
the lieutenants not at the office at the time--to the master of
engines; to the head enginemen of the various districts; to the
superintendent of the water company; to the lord provost or chief
magistrate for the time; to the sheriff of the county; to the bailie
residing nearest the place; to the dean of guild; to the members of
fire-engine committee of commissioners of police; to the moderator of
the high constables; and also to the managers of the different
gaslight companies.
The officer on duty at the main office shall, with the least possible
delay, send off to the fire a party of his men, under the command of a
lieutenant or other officer.
This party, on arriving at the spot, shall clear off the crowd, and
keep open space and passages for the firemen and others employed.
The officer commanding this party of the police shall attend to no
instructions except such as he shall receive from the acting chief
magistrate attending; or, in absence of a magistrate, from any member
of the committee on fire-engines; and the men shall attend to the
instructions of their own officer alone.
Three or more policemen shall be in attendance upon the acting chief
magistrate and fire-engine committee; two policemen shall constantly
attend the master of the engines, to be at his disposal entirely; and
one policeman shall attend with the water-officer at each fire-cock
that may be opened.
The superintendent of police shall always have a list of extra
policemen hung up in the police-office, who, upon occasions of fire,
may be called out, if necessary, and twenty of these extra men shall
always be called out upon notice of fire being received at the main
office, for the purpose of attending at the police-office, and
rendering assistance where it may be required. The superintendent
shall likewise have a supply of fire-buckets, flambeaux, and lanterns,
at the office, to be ready when wanted.
There shall be no ringing of alarm-bells, beating of drums, or
springing of rattles, except by written order from the chief
magistrate for the time; but the alarm may be given by despatching
messengers, with proper badges, through different parts of the town,
when considered necessary.
III. SUPERINTENDENT OF FIRE BRIGADE.
On receiving notice of a fire, the superintendent shall instantly
equip himself in his uniform, and repair to the spot where the fire
is.
The necessary operations to be adopted shall be under his absolute
control, and he will issue his instructions to the head enginemen and
firemen.
The superintendent shall report from time to time to the chief
magistrate in attendance (through such medium as may be at his
command, but without his leaving the spot), the state of the fire, and
whether a greater number of policemen, or a party of the military, be
required, and anything else which may occur to him; and the master
shall observe the directions of the chief magistrate attending, and
those of no other person whatever.
The superintendent shall frequently inspect the engines, and all the
apparatus connected therewith; he shall be responsible for the whole
being at all times in good order and condition; and he shall have a
general muster and inspection at least once every three months, when
the engines and all the apparatus shall be tried. He shall also
instruct the enginemen, firemen, and the watchmen, to unlock the
plates, and screw on the distributors of the fire-cocks, or open the
fire-plugs.
Whenever any repairs or new apparatus shall appear to be necessary,
the superintendent shall give notice to the clerk of the police, whose
duty it shall be instantly to convene the committee on fire-engines.
Upon a fire breaking out, the superintendent shall lose as little time
as possible in stationing chimney-sweepers on the roofs of the
adjoining houses, to keep them clear of flying embers; and also
persons in each flat of the adjoining houses, to observe their state,
and report if any appearances of danger should arise; such persons
taking as much care as possible _to keep all doors and windows of said
flats shut_, and the doors and windows of the premises where the fire
happens to be shall, so far as practicable, be carefully kept shut.
The superintendent shall forthwith prepare regulations for the
firemen, &c., under his charge, and report the same to the committee
on fire-engines for their approval. Every fireman shall be furnished
with a copy of such regulations, and shall be bound to make himself
master of its contents; and it shall be the duty of the superintendent
to see that the instructions are duly attended to in training and
exercising the men.
IV.--HEAD ENGINEMEN.
Each head engineman shall attend to the engines placed in his
district, and all the apparatus connected therewith, and report to the
superintendent when any repairs or new apparatus seem requisite, and
shall be responsible for the engines being in proper working condition
at all times.
Upon receiving notice of a fire, the head enginemen shall call out the
firemen in their respective districts; and they shall all repair,
perfectly equipped, with the utmost expedition, to the spot where the
fire happens to be, carrying along with them the engines and
apparatus.
The head enginemen shall have the carts and barrels attached to their
several districts always in readiness, in good order, and the barrels
filled with water, which shall accompany the engines to the fire.
On arriving at the spot, the head enginemen shall take their
instructions from the superintendent, or, in his absence, from the
chief magistrate in attendance on the spot; or, in their absence, from
a member of the fire-engine committee, and from no other person
whatever.
V.--FIREMEN.
The firemen shall attend at all times when required by the head
enginemen or superintendent, as well as upon the days of general
inspection. They shall keep their engines in good order and condition,
and shall be equipped in their uniform at all times when called out.
They shall observe the instructions of no person whatever, except
those of the superintendent or head enginemen.
VI.--HIGH CONSTABLES AND COMMISSIONERS OF POLICE.
Upon occasions of fire, the moderator of the high constables shall
call out the high constables, and, if necessary, he shall also call
out the extra constables, and give notice to call out the constables
of their districts; and it shall be the duty of the constables to
preserve order and to protect property, to keep the crowd away from
the engines, and those employed about them; and, when authorized by
the chief magistrate, superintendent of engines, or, in the absence of
a magistrate, by a member of the committee on fire-engines, to provide
men for working the engines.
Neither the constables nor the commissioners of police shall assume
any management, or give any directions whatsoever, except in absence
of a magistrate and the superintendent of engines, in which case any
member of the committee on fire-engines may give orders to the head
enginemen.
In cases of protracted fire, when extra men may be required to relieve
the regular establishment, it shall be the duty of the high constables
to collect those wanted, from amongst the persons on the street who
may be willing to lend their assistance, mustering them in such
parties as may be required, taking a note of their names, and
furnishing each individual with a certificate or ticket, with which
the moderator of the high constables, or chief constable at the time,
will be supplied; and no person shall receive any remuneration for
alleged assistance given at a fire who may not produce such
certificate or ticket.
The party or parties so mustered shall be placed and continue under
the care of two high constables, until required for service, when they
shall be moved forward to the engine.
The men relieved by the party so moved forward, shall be taken charge
of by two high constables, who shall see them properly refreshed and
brought back within a reasonable time, so that the men employed may
thus occasionally relieve each other without confusion, and without
being too much exhausted.
VII.--MAGISTRATES, &c.
Upon occasion of fires, the magistrates, sheriff, moderator of the
high constables, the superintendent of the water company, the managers
of the different gas-light companies, and the fire-engine committee,
will give their attendance. They will assemble in such house nearest
to the place of the fire as can be procured, of which notice shall be
immediately given to the officer commanding the police on the spot.
The orders of the chief magistrate in attendance shall be immediately
obeyed; and no order, except those issued by such magistrate, and the
particular directions given as to the fire and engine department by
the master of engines, or, in their absence, by a member of the
fire-engine committee on the spot, shall be at all attended to.
The magistrates and sheriff further declare, that all porters holding
badges shall be bound to give their attendance at fires when called
upon for that purpose.
VIII.--GAS-LIGHT COMPANIES.
The managers of the different gas-light companies, on receiving notice
of a fire, shall instantly take measures for turning off the gas from
all shops and houses in the immediate neighbourhood of the fire.
IX.--SPECIAL REGULATIONS FOR THE FIREMEN.
_Captains._--On the alarm of fire being given, an engine must be
immediately despatched from the main office to whatever district the
fire may be in; and the captain in whose district the fire happens
shall bring his engine to the spot as quickly as possible, taking care
that none of the apparatus is awanting. On arriving at the spot, he
must take every means in his power to supply his engine with water,
but especially by a service-pipe from a fire-cock, if that be found
practicable. Great care must be taken to place the engine so that it
may be in the direction of the water, with sufficient room on all
sides to work it, but as little in the way of persons employed in
carrying out furniture, &c., as possible. He must also examine the
fire while the men are fixing the hose, &c., that the water may be
directed with the best effect.
The captains shall be responsible for any misconduct of their men,
when they fail to report such misconduct to the superintendent.
The engines must be at all times in good working order, and the
captain shall report to the superintendent when any part of the
apparatus is in need of repair.
When the fire is in another district, the captain of each engine shall
get his men and engine ready to proceed at a moment's notice, but must
not move from his engine-house till a special order arrives from a
lieutenant of police or the superintendent of brigade.
_Sergeants._--The sergeant of each engine will take the command in
absence of the captain. When the captain is present, the sergeant will
give him all possible assistance in conducting the engine to the fire;
and it will there be more particularly the sergeant's duty to see that
the engine is supplied with water, and that every man is at his proper
station, and to remain with his engine while on duty, whether it is
working or not, unless he receives special orders to the contrary.
_Pioneers._--Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4 of each engine will be considered
pioneers. Nos. 1 and 2 will proceed to the fire immediately, without
going to their engine-house, in order to prepare for the arrival of
the first engine, by ascertaining and clearing a proper station for
it, and by making ready the most available supplies of water, as also
to examine the state of the premises on fire and the neighbouring
ones, so as to be able to give such information to the captain on his
arrival as may enable him to apply his force with the greatest effect.
_The pioneers will attend particularly to the excluding of air from
the parts on fire by every means in their power, and they will
ascertain whether there are any communications with the adjoining
house by the roof, gable, or otherwise._ When the several engines
arrive, the pioneers will fall in with their own company, and take
their farther orders from the captain or sergeant.
_Firemen._--On the alarm of fire being given, the whole company
belonging to each engine (Nos. 1 and 2 excepted) shall assemble as
speedily as possible at their engine-house, and act with spirit under
the orders of their officers in getting everything ready for service.
Each man will get a ticket with his own number and the colour of his
engine marked upon it; and on all occasions when he comes on duty he
will give this ticket into the hands of a policeman, who will be
appointed by the officer of police on duty to collect them at each
engine-house, and who will accompany the engine if it is ordered to
the fire.
If the ticket be not given in, as before provided, within half an hour
after the alarm is given at their engine-house, or at all events,
within half an hour after the arrival of the engine at the fire, the
defaulter will forfeit the allowance for turning out, and also the
first hour's pay.
If not given in within the first hour, he will forfeit all claim to
pay.
The superintendent, however, may do away the forfeiture in any of
these cases, on cause being shown to his satisfaction.
On quarter-days and days of exercise, every man must be ready equipped
at the appointed hour, otherwise he will forfeit that day's pay, or
such part of it as the superintendent may determine.
Any man destroying his equipments, or wearing them when off duty, will
be punished by fine or dismissal from the service, as the
superintendent may determine.
Careless conduct, irregular attendance at exercise, or disobedience of
superior officers, to be punished as above-mentioned.
The man who arrives first at the engine-house to which he belongs,
_properly equipped_, will receive three shillings over and above the
pay for turning out.
The first of the Nos. 1 and 2 who arrives at the fire, _properly
equipped_, in whatever district it may be, will receive three
shillings over and above the pay for turning out.
No pay will be allowed for a false alarm, unless the same is given by
a policeman.
As nothing is so hurtful to the efficiency of an establishment for
extinguishing fires as unnecessary noise, irregularity, or
insubordination, it is enjoined on all to observe quietness and
regularity, to execute readily whatever orders they may receive from
their officers, and to do nothing without orders.
The first engine and company which arrive at the fire are not to be
interfered with
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