Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1875 — The London Fire Brigade. [ARTICLE]

The London Fire Brigade.

There are now 50 stations of the brigade in London and 4 stations are on the Thames, where steam-floating engines are moored. In connection with these stations, which, are all in communication with each other by means of the electric telegraph, there are 53 telegraph lines and 85 miles of telegraph, 1 iron-floating barge to carry a land steam fire-engine, 5 large land steam fire-engines, 14 small land steam fire-engines, 15 seven-inch manual fire-engines, 12 under six-inch manual fire-engines and 396 firemen. There are 105 fire-escape stations and 125 fire-escapes. The number of firemen employed on the several watches kept up during the day is 90; the number at night is 181, so that 27Aire employed on -watch duty in every twenty-four hours. The number sick, injured, on leave, or under instruction is usually between 40 and 50. The remaining men are available for general work at fires. During 1873 the calls made on the brigade for a turnout of engines were as many as 1,708. Of these 83 proved to be false alarms snd 72 were alarms of chimney fires. Of fires other than chimney fires there were 1,548, of which 166 resulted in serious damage and 1,382 iu slight damage. In 20 of those fires life was lost and in 74 of them life was seriously endangered. The number of lives actually lost was 35, of whom 12 were taken out of the burning buildings before death but subsequently succumbed in hospitals or elsewhere. The total number of calls for chimney fires and in which no alarm of general fire had been raised was 8,602. to these cases there was no attendance of engines but only of firemen with hand-pnmps. The quantity of water used for extinguishing fires in the metropolis daring the year 1873 was about 32,500,000 gallons, or 101,000 tons. The working accounts for the year show the expenditure of the brigade to have been nearly $370,000. Of this, between SIBO,OOO and $185,000 went in salaries and wages, and nearly SIO,OOO for men’s clothing, something under $2,000 for payments to medical officers, and about $2,500 in pensions to late officers and widows.