valuable portion of the metropolis being now rebuilt without the addition
of at least one story. Eighty and ninety feet is getting a common height
for our great offices and warehouses, which is tantamount to saying that a
certain portion of the metropolis, and that a constantly increasing one,
is outgrowing the power of the Fire Brigade, as no engine built upon the
present plan can throw water for many minutes to such an elevation. Mr.
Braidwood foresees that he must call in the aid of the common drudge,
steam. In America they have already introduced this new agent with some
success, and in London we have proved its power in the floating engine.
Steam fire-engines, it is evident, will soon be brought into use, unless
we do away with the necessity for engines at all by fixing the hose
directly on the mains, as is done at Hamburg. But to effect this it will
be necessary to relay the whole metropolis with much larger pipes, to
increase their number, and at the same time adopt the constant-service
system. At present, even if we had the water always on, the mains are
often so small as to preclude the use of more than two or three hose--for,
if the collective diameters of the areas of the latter exceed that of the
pipe which feeds them, the pressure will cease, and no water will be
propelled to any height through the jet. It cannot be denied, however,
that if the streets of London were all supplied with capacious mains, and
the different companies plugged them profusely (a thing they are very
chary of doing, for fear of their being injured by the wear and tear of
the fire-engines), London would be rendered far more secure than it is at
present, as scarcely any fire could withstand the full force of constant
streams of thousands of gallons of water per minute. At present the
greater portion of the water is wasted; at the destruction of the Houses
of Parliament, a body of this element equal to an acre in area, and twelve
feet deep, flowed from the mains, a tenth part of which could not have
been used by the twenty-three jets that were playing simultaneously.
It will not here be out of place to say a few words upon the method of
extinguishing flame by means of the gaseous mixture contained in
Phillips's fire-annihilators. According to a writer in the "Household
Words," the ordinary-sized annihilator is less than that of a small
upright iron coalscuttle, and its weight not greater than can be easily
carried by man or woman to any part of the house. It is charged with a
compound of charcoal, nitre, and gypsum, moulded into the form of a large
brick: the igniter is a glass tube inserted into the top of this brick:
inclosing two phials--one filled with the mixture of chlorate of potassa
and sugar, the other containing a few drops of sulphuric acid. A slight
blow upon a knob drives down a pin which breaks the phials, and the
different mixtures coming in contact ignite the mass, the gas arising from
which, acting upon a water-chamber contained in the machine, produces a
steam, and the whole escapes forth in a dense expanding cloud.
Mr. Phillips made some public experiments with his fire-annihilator three
or four years ago, in which its power to put out the fiercest flame was
fully proved. The timber framework of a three storied-house smeared with
pitch and tar, upon being fired, was instantly extinguished: quantities of
pitch, tar, and oil of turpentine, which only burn the stronger for the
presence of water, were dealt with still more expeditiously. The valuable
quality of rendering an atmosphere of dense smoke, in which no living
thing could exist, perfectly respirable, was also shown in the most
satisfactory manner. Since that time the machine has been brought into
action at Leeds, where it put out a fire in an attic; and in a very
serious conflagration, which took place in the spirit-room, and afterwards
extended to the main hatchway of the mail steamer the _City of
Manchester_, in the autumn of 1852, it was applied with the most perfect
success. There can be no doubt that in all confined places the control of
the annihilator over flame is omnipotent--acting much more speedily than
water, and, unlike that element, doing no damage. When the flames are
unconfined, the annihilator will prove of little use, because, the gaseous
cloud that issues from it not being heavier than the air, it cannot be
projected to any distance. As an auxiliary to the engine, it will be
invaluable in many cases, as it will enable the fireman to go into places
where at present he dares not enter, unless protected by the unwieldy
smoke-jacket, the supply of air to which might at any time be cut off by
rubbish falling upon the hose through which it is pumped to him by the
engine.
Although it is foreign to our design to speak at length of agricultural
fires, and incendiarism among farming stock, the subject is too important
to be entirely omitted. One of the largest London insurance-offices,
interested in farming stock, posts up bills about premises they have
insured, which, after stating that no lucifers are to be used, or pipes
are to be smoked, goes on to say, "_This farm is insured; the fire office
will be the only sufferer in the event of a fire._" The inference is, that
the labourer will feel more inclined to pay respect to the property of an
insurance company than to that of the farmer. Yet it is far from being the
case that the crime is always prompted by personal ill-will. One of the
largest agricultural incendiaries upon record was a city weaver, who acted
from a general spirit of discontent, without any hatred or knowledge of
the owners. In other instances the sole motive is the "jollification"
which generally follows a fire upon a farm: this fact came to light at a
trial in Cambridge, eight or nine years since, when a man who was
sentenced to death for setting fire to a homestead confessed to having
caused twelve different fires, his only object being the desire to obtain
the few shillings, and the refreshment of bread, cheese, and ale, which
are given to labourers on these occasions. On the other hand, if the
farmer determines to give no recompense, the hangers-on have been known to
put their hands in their pockets and watch his property burn with the
utmost indifference, if not with glee.
The cause of fire which the farmer has mainly to guard against may be at
one seen by the following table, for which we are indebted to the manager
of the County Fire Office:--
_Losses on Farming Stock between January the 1st and November the 30th,
1853._
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Number | | |
|of Fires.| Cause. | Amount. |
|---------|-----------------------------------------|------------|
| | | £. s. d. |
| 49 |Incendiary | 5214 6 11 |
| 17 |Lightning | 181 5 10 |
| 22 |Children and others playing with lucifers| 1211 18 10 |
| 2 |Steam thrashing-machines | 430 0 0 |
| 38 |General | 1781 19 9 |
|---------| |------------|
| 128 | | 8819 11 4 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
These losses are upon a total insurance of eight millions. Incendiarism
and children playing with lucifers are the two grand elements of
destruction; and the former, we are given to understand, is below the
general average. Kind treatment and better education are the only shields
that can protect the farmer against incendiarism. The nuisance arising
from children playing with lucifers may be abated by the absolute denial
of matches to young boys about a farm, who, to cook their dinners,
generally cause conflagrations near the ricks in the winter, and among the
standing corn whilst "keeping birds" in the summer. The following
excellent suggestions are by Mr. Beaumont, the secretary of the County
Fire Office.
_Precautions to be taken against a Fire._
Forbid your men to use lucifer matches, smoke, or light pipes or
cigars, destroy wasps' nests, or fire off guns, in or near the
rickyard, or to throw hot cinders into or against any wooden
out-building on the farm, on pain of instant dismissal.
Place your ricks in a single line, and as far distant from each other
as you conveniently can.
Place hay-ricks and corn-stacks _alternately_; the hay-rick will check
the progress of the fire.
Keep the rickyard, and especially the spaces between the stacks and
ricks, clear of all loose straw; and in all respects in a neat and
clean state. The loose straw is more frequently the means of firing
than the stack itself.
Have a pond close to the rickyard, although there may be but a bad
supply of water.
When a steam thrashing-machine is to be used, place it _on the lee
side_ of the stack or barn, so that the wind may blow the sparks _away
from_ the stacks. Let the engine be placed as far from the machine as
the length of the strap will allow. Have the loose straw continually
cleared away from the engine; see that two or three pails of water are
constantly close to the ash-pan, and that the pan itself is kept
constantly full of water.
_How to act when a Fire has broken out in a Rickyard._
Do not wait for the engines, nor for the assistance of the labourers
from a distance. Depend entirely upon the immediate and energetic
exertions of yourself and your own men.
Do not allow the rick or stack on fire to be disturbed--let it burn
itself out--but let every exertion be made to press it compactly
together, and, as far as is practicable, prevent any lighted particles
flying about.
Get together all your blankets, carpets, sacks, rugs, and other
similar articles, soak them thoroughly in water, and place them over
and against the adjoining ricks and stacks, towards which the wind
blows.
Having thus covered the sides of the ricks adjoining that on fire,
devote all your attention to the latter. Press it together by every
available means. If water is at hand, throw upon it as much as
possible.
If engines arrive, let the water be thrown upon the blankets, &c.,
covering the adjoining stacks, and then upon the stack on fire.
Among the numerous hands who flock to assist upon these occasions,
many do mischief by their want of knowledge, and especially by opening
the fired stack and scattering the embers. In order to obviate this
evil, place your best man in command over the stack on fire, desire
him to make it _his sole duty_ to prevent it being disturbed, and to
keep it pressed and watered.
Place other men, in whose steadiness you have confidence, to watch the
adjoining ricks, to keep the coverings over them, and to extinguish
any embers flying from the stack on fire. In order to effect this, it
is most desirable that there should be ladders at hand to enable one
or two of the labourers to mount upon each stack.
If the ricks are separated from each other, and there is no danger of
the fire extending to a second, it is of course desirable to save as
much of the one on fire as may be possible. That, however, is not
unfrequently accomplished by keeping the rick compactly together
rather than by opening it.
Send for all the neighbours' blankets and tarpaulins: these are
invaluable, they are near at hand, and can be immediately applied.
The companies are always very willing to pay for any damage done in
attempting to save their property.
The business of the Fire Brigade is to protect property and not life from
fire, though the men of course use every exertion to save the inmates, and
are always provided with a "jumping-sheet" to catch those who precipitate
themselves from the roofs and windows of houses. As the danger to life
generally arises at a very early stage of a fire, when the freshly aroused
inhabitants fly distracted into very dangerous places, and often destroy
themselves by needless haste, it is highly necessary to have help at hand
before the engines can possibly arrive. There are, it is true, ladders
placed against all the parish churches, but they are always locked up,
often rotten, and never in charge of trained individuals: accordingly,
they may be classed for inefficiency with the parish engines. A proof of
this was given at the calamitous fire which occurred in Dover Street, at
Raggett's Hotel, on which occasion Mrs. Round and several other persons
were lost through the conduct of the keeper of one of the fire-escapes of
the parish of St. James being absent when called, and drunk when, upon his
arrival, he attempted to put his machine in action: the keeper of a second
escape belonging to this parish, and stationed in Golden Square, refused
to go to a fire in Soho, which occurred in 1852, because it was out of his
district: the consequence was, than seven persons threw themselves from
the windows and were all more or less dangerously injured.
In 1833 the Royal Society for the Protection of Life from Fire, which had
been imperfectly organized a year or two before, was fully established,
and has continued to increase the sphere of its influence year by year.
The committee of management, appreciating the value of celerity in
attending fires, have marked the metropolis out into fifty-five squares of
half a mile each: in forty-two of these they have established a
station,[46] in its most central part, at which a fire-escape and trained
conductor are to be found from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. from Lady-day to
Michaelmas, and from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. from Michaelmas to Lady-day. When
the remaining thirteen squares are furnished, there will be means of
rescue from fire within a quarter of a mile of every house in London: thus
the nightly watch for this purpose is better organized with respect to
number of stations than even the fire brigade, and, like this force, it is
under the general management of a single director. We are all familiar
with the sight of these strange-looking machines as they come towering
along in the dusk of the evening towards their appointed stations; but few
perhaps have seen them in action or have examined the manner in which they
are constructed. There are several methods of building them, but the one
chiefly used is Wivell's, a very simple machine and speedily put in
action, a description of which we take from the society's report:--
"The main ladder reaches from thirty to thirty-five feet, and can
instantly be applied to most second-floor windows, by means of the
carriage lever. The upper ladder folds over the main ladder, and is
raised easily in the position represented, by a rope attached to its
lever-irons on either side of the main ladder; or, as recently adopted
in one or two of the escapes, by an arrangement of pulleys in lieu of
the lever-irons. The short ladder, for first floors, fits in under the
carriage, and is often of the greatest service. Under the whole length
of the main ladder is a canvas trough or bagging, made of stout
sailcloth, protected by an outer trough of copper-wire net, leaving
sufficient room between for the yielding of the canvas in a person's
descent. The addition of the copper-wire is a great improvement, as,
although not affording an entire protection against the canvas
burning, it in most cases avails, and prevents the possibility of any
one falling through. The soaking of the canvas in alum and other
solutions is attended to; but this, while preventing its flaming,
cannot avoid the risk of accident from the fire charring the canvas."
When we remember that the fire-escapes often have to be raised above
windows from which the flames are pouring forth, it will be seen how
valuable is this double protection against the destruction of the canvas.
The necessity for it was shown at a fire in Crawford Street, Marylebone,
where an explosion took place which fired the canvas and let the conductor
fall through just as he was rescuing an inmate,--an accident by which he
was dreadfully injured. When people look up at these fire-escapes, they
generally shudder at the idea of having to enter the bag, suspended at a
height of forty feet from the ground; but in the hour of danger the
terrified inmates never exhibit the slightest reluctance. Once in, they
slide down the bulging canvas in the gentlest manner, without any of the
rapidity that would be imagined from the almost perpendicular position in
which it hangs.
The fire-escape which is stationed near the New Road is constructed so
that it can be taken off its wheels, in order to allow it to enter the
long gardens which here extend before so many of the houses. The height
attainable by these escapes varies from 43-1/2 feet to 45 feet. A
supplemental short ladder is now carried by most of them, which can be
quickly fitted on an emergency into the upper ladder, and increases the
height to 50 feet.
The intrepidity of the conductors of these machines is quite astonishing.
Familiarity with danger begets a coolness which enables them to place
themselves in positions which would prove destructive to unpractised
persons. As in most cases they are the prominent actors in a drama
witnessed by a whole street-full of excited spectators, they are perhaps
tempted by the cheers to risk themselves in a manner they would little
dream of doing under other circumstances. In addition to such a stimulus
they are rewarded with a silver medal, and with sums of money, for any
extraordinary act of gallantry. Every instance of a daring rescue is
entered in the society's books, from which we have extracted a few
examples, to show what enterprising fellows they are. At a fire which
broke out in November, 1844, in a house in Hatton Garden, Conductor
Sunshine on his arrival found the following state of things. On the second
floor a man was sitting on the sill of one of the windows (there were four
windows abreast), and on the third floor a man was hanging by his hands to
the window-sill at the other extremity of the house-front. After having
rescued the man on the second floor, he did not dare to raise his
third-floor ladder, for fear of hitting the hanging man's hands, and
causing him to fall; accordingly, he stood upon the top rung of the
second-floor ladder, and by so doing could just touch with his upstrained
arms the poor fellow's depending feet. In this position, having himself
but a precarious hold of the window-frame beneath, his only footing being
the topmost rung, he called to the man to drop when he told him, and
discovered from his silence that he was deaf and dumb. Upon being tapped
upon the foot, however, he let go, and the conductor managed, incredible
as it may appear, to slip him down between himself and the wall on to the
top of the ladder, and brought him safely to the ground. In the next case,
Conductor Chapman was the hero of the scene, although the indomitable
Sunshine was present. Having crossed the roofs of two adjoining
out-buildings, Chapman managed to place his ladder against the second back
floor of the house on fire. Having rescued a lady, he was obliged to
retrace his steps over the roofs, as the fire was coming through the
tiling. He could only cross by making a bridge of the short ladder; and
scarcely had they cleared the premises when it fell in with a tremendous
crash.
On another occasion this intrepid man having made an entrance into the
second-floor window of a house in Tottenham-court Road, he was obliged to
retreat twice, by reason of his lamp going out in the dense smoke. On the
third trial it remained in, and enabled him to search the place. "I called
out loud," he says in his report, "and was answered by a kind of stifled
cry. I rushed across the landing to the back room, and encountered a man,
who groaned out, "O save my wife!" I groped about, and laid hold of a
female, who fell with me, clasping two children in her arms. I took them
up, and brought them to the escape, guiding the man to follow me, and
placed them all safely in the canvas, from whence they reached the ground
without any injury; and, finally, I came down myself, quite exhausted."
"We thought," said a bystander, "when he jumped into the second-floor
window, that we should not see him again alive; and I cannot tell you how
he was cheered when he appeared with the woman and her two children."
We shall content ourselves by quoting one more exploit from the Reports of
the Society, the hero of which was Conductor Wood, who received a
testimonial on vellum for the following service at a fire in
Colchester-street, Whitechapel, on the 29th of April, 1854:--
"On his arrival, the fire was raging throughout the back of the house,
and smoke issuing from every window; upon entering the first-floor
room, part of which was on fire, he discovered five persons almost
insensible from the excessive heat: he immediately descended the
ladder _with a woman on his shoulders, and holding a child by its
night-clothes in his mouth_; again ascended, re-entered the room, and
having enabled the father to escape, had scarcely descended, _with a
child under each arm_, when the whole building became enveloped in
flames, rendering it impossible to attempt a rescue of the remainder
of the unfortunate inmates."
The rewards of the Society are not always won by their own men. William
Trafford, police constable 344, for instance, had one of the Society's
medals presented to him, for "allowing two persons to drop upon him from
the top windows of a house in College-street, Camden-town, and thereby
enabling them to escape without material injury." Nothing is said as to
the damage done to poor Trafford by this act of self-devotion.
The real working value of the fire-escapes may be judged from the fact
that, during the twenty years they have been on duty, they have attended
no less than 2,041 fires, and rescued 214 human beings from destruction.
To make this excellent scheme complete, only thirteen stations have now to
be established, at a first cost of about eighty pounds each; the
charitable could not give their money in a more worthy cause than in
furnishing these districts, in which many thousands of inhabitants are
still exposed to the most horrible of all deaths. To show that the
usefulness of the Society has progressed with the number of their escapes,
we need only adduce the evidence of the table in the next page, made up to
the 25th of March of each year.
The fire-escapes, in addition to their own particular duty, are also of
the greatest service to the firemen of the Brigade, as, by the use of
their ladders, they are enabled to ascend to any window of a house, and to
direct the jet directly upon the burning mass, instead of throwing it
wild,--a matter of the greatest importance in extinguishing a fire: for
unless you play upon the burning material, and thus cut off the flame at
its root, you only uselessly deluge the building with water, which is, we
believe, in many cases quite as destructive to stock and furniture as the
fire it is intended to extinguish.
+-------------------------------------------------+
|_Year._| _Number of_ | _Fires_ |_Lives_ |
| | _Stations._ |_attended._|_saved._|
|-------|--------------------|-----------|--------|
| 1845 | 8 increased to 11 | 116 | 13 |
| 1846 | 11 " 15 | 96 | 7 |
| 1847 | 15 " 21 | 139 | 11 |
| 1848 | 21 " 25 | 197 | 17 |
| 1849 | 25 " 26 | 223 | 31 |
| 1850 | 26 " 28 | 198 | 10 |
| 1851 | 28 " 30 | 226 | 36 |
| 1852 | 30 " 34 | 253 | 25 |
| 1853 | 34 " 40 | 265 | 46 |
| 1854 | 40 " 40 | 328 | 28 |
| | Two since added. | | |
+-------------------------------------------------+
Much may be done by the inmates to help themselves when a house is on
fire, in case neither the engine nor the escape should arrive in time to
assist them. Mr. Braidwood, in his little work on the method of proceeding
at fires, advises his readers to rehearse to themselves his
recommendations, otherwise when the danger comes, they are thrown,
according to his experience, into "a state of temporary derangement, and
seem to be actuated only by a desire of muscular movement," throwing
chairs and tables from the tops of houses that are scarcely on fire, and,
to wind up the absurdity, he says, "on one occasion I saw crockery-ware
thrown from a window on the third floor."
The means to be adopted to prevent the flames spreading, resolve
themselves into taking care not to open doors or windows, which create a
draught. The same rule should be observed by those outside; no door or
glass should be smashed in before the means are at hand to put out the
fire.