They are under control of the office, and will be set going INSTANTLY,
on the slightest alarm, and continue to ring.
This ringing, with the system of calling each room by watchmen
stationed on the floors, will insure the speediest alarm to guests it
is possible to give in case of accident.
On being awakened, guests and employés will protect themselves, each
other, and property, to the greatest possible extent.
There are four RED LANTERNS in each hall, at the corners, showing the
Stairways, and at the End of every Corridor outside the building there
are IRON LADDER FIRE-ESCAPES to the ground.
Passage along the halls and corridors, if dark and filled with smoke,
can be made by crawling close to the floor with the face covered, to
prevent the inhalation of smoke and consequent suffocation.
From the Roof and the three stories below it there is access from the
service stairs to the tops of the adjoining buildings, making a Way of
Escape over the roofs, from Dearborn to State street,—a full block.
JOHN A. RICE & Co.
The fire service at Chicago is, no doubt, the finest and most complete
organization in the world. Situated as the city is, on a vast plain,
with prairie winds and lake winds that sweep the entire country for
hundreds of miles without obstruction, the fire department has to
consider, not only the question of extinguishing a conflagration, but
protecting the property adjacent to a fire from ignition, in regard to
which it has a series of wise precautionary measures. In former days
Chicago, like many other American cities, was largely built of wood,
and there are still outlying districts of timber houses. There are also
enormous lumber-yards in Chicago, which are a source of danger during
fires that rage when a high wind is blowing. Not long since Capt.
Shaw gave an exhibition to a royal party in London, demonstrating how
quickly the engines and fire-escapes can be signalled and despatched
to a fire. So far as I remember the time was about fifteen minutes.
In Chicago they take less than as many seconds to complete a similar
operation. The system of fire-alarms in all American cities is superior
to ours, and the arrangements for starting ensure far more expedition.
We have a less number of fires in England, many conflagrations taking
place in America through carelessness in connection with the furnaces
that are used for heating the houses; then shingle roofs are not
uncommon in America; and in England the party-walls that separate
houses are, as a rule, thicker and higher. This was the explanation
which the American consul gave me at Birmingham, England, recently,
for the fact that during a whole year in Birmingham (with a population
equal to Chicago) every fire that had occurred had been extinguished
with a hand-engine and hose; it had not been necessary in a single
case to use the steam-engines. In Chicago and other cities the electric
signal announcing a fire at the same time releases the horses that
are tethered close to the engines, alarms the reclining (sometimes
sleeping) firemen in their bunks above, withdraws the bolts of
trap-doors in the floor; and by the time the horses are in the shafts
and harnessed the men drop from their bunks upon the engine. From a
calm interior, occupied by an engine with its fire banked up, and one
attendant officer, to a scene of bustle and excitement with an engine,
fully equipped, dashing out into the street, is a transformation
sufficiently theatrical in its effect to make the fortune of an Adelphi
drama.
I once engaged to time the operation with a stopwatch, and before I
was fairly ready to count the seconds the engine was in the street and
away. These exhibitions of skill, speed, and mechanical contrivance can
be seen every day at the quarters of the Fire Insurance Patrol. Chief
Bulwinkle is one of the most obliging of officers, and many a famous
English name has been inscribed in his visitor’s book.[59]
The method of marshalling the forces of the various brigades in case
of a serious fire is interesting. Marshal Swenie explains it in a few
words, in answer to a journalistic inquiry:—
“‘There is at each fire-station a running-card in connection with a
particular fire-alarm box. All these brigades act on the first alarm.
If the fire is in the crowded and costly part of the city not only
do the nearest companies go to the fire, but the companies farther
off move up. Suppose, for instance, that there is a fire at State and
Madison streets, and there are four engine-houses in a straight line,
extending in any direction to the city limits, and a mile apart. We
will call the company nearest the fire No. 1, the next, No. 2, the
next, No. 3, and the one farthest away, No. 4. Now, when No. 1 goes to
the fire, No. 2 goes to the engine-house of No. 1 and takes possession;
No. 3, in like manner, takes possession of No. 2’s house, and No. 4
of No. 3’s house. If there is a second alarm, No. 2 goes to the fire;
No. 3 takes No. 1’s house, and No. 4 takes No. 3’s house. If there
is a third alarm, No. 3 goes to the fire, and No. 4 takes No. 1’s
house. Moreover, what is done in that one direction is done in every
direction.”
“‘What is the object of this?’ asks the interviewing reporter from whom
I borrow Marshal Swenie’s information.
“‘The object is to watch most closely the most valuable part of the
city. A fire in the heart of the city destroys a hundred times as much
property in a given time as a fire in the outskirts; therefore we
arrange things so that if any part is to be left without protection it
shall be the sparsely settled part.’
“‘Who directs the operation of extinguishing a fire?’
“‘The captain of the company that arrives first on the ground takes
command of all the companies that arrive after his until a chief of a
battalion arrives; and the chief takes command until the marshal or
assistant marshal arrives.’
“‘What is the position of the commanding officer at a fire?’
“‘In front of the fire. By the front I mean to the leeward. A fire is
always driven by the wind in one particular direction, and the marshal
or commanding officer will always be found, therefore, where the fire
is the hottest.’
“‘How do you communicate your orders in such a noise and excitement as
there were, for instance, at the Bradner Smith & Co. fire?’
“‘Partly by messengers and partly by signals. The signals, however,
are very few, and are made with a lantern. If the lantern is moved up
and down it means that more pressure is needed on the stream; if it is
moved horizontally it means that less is needed; and if it is swung
around in a circle it means “take up,” or stop work altogether.’
“‘What does the whistling of the engine mean?’
“‘It means that they need more coal. They take with them fuel enough to
last them half an hour, and by that time the coal-wagons are due.’
“‘Do you ever have any difficulty with your men on the score of
cowardice?’
“‘Not any; but I have a world of difficulty in the other direction. The
ambition, rivalry, and _esprit du corps_ of the force are so great that
I have the greatest difficulty in restraining the men from throwing
away their lives in the most reckless manner. If I ever need to have
a man go into a very dangerous position all I have to do is to send
two there. As soon as they start each one insists on going a few feet
farther than the other, and the result is that both of them become
willing to walk into the fire. There is also very little shirking in
the force. Once in a long time a man gets suspected of shirking, and
the way that is cured is, he is given the pipe to hold at every fire,
and four men are put behind him to shove him in.’
“‘What are the greatest obstacles to be overcome in extinguishing a
fire?’
“‘Smoke and hot air. I have known the air in burning buildings to get
so hot that two inhalations of it would kill a man. As to smoke, we use
a kind of respirator; but it doesn’t do a great deal of good. Our main
hope is in ventilating the premises and letting out the smoke. If it
wasn’t for the smoke it would be very easy to put out fires.’
“‘Do you find that a fireman is short-lived?’
“‘I can’t say I do. So far as I can see they are a healthy, long-lived
class, when they don’t get mangled and killed at their work.’”