Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

220 BRITAIN AT WORK. 2i manuals, 40 miles of hose, 104 hose carts, 174 escapes, 55 ladder vans, 260 horses, 275 telephone lines, and 694 alarm calls. A canteen van for the refreshment of the brigade on heavy days is a recent innovation; and barges, tugs, floats, bicycles, and a hundred and one other appliances are avail- able for service on land and water. With the improved water supplies of the large towns the need for powerful engines is less than it would otherwise have been, and it is not the least arduous of the duties of the brigade to subject the 26,097 hydrants within the 117 miles of the metropolitan area to a rigid scrutiny. Owing to difficulties of gravitation the pressure in the mains in London is less than in some other cities and towns. Thus Huddersfield has a night pressure of 160 lb., Bradford 140 lb., Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Manchester 100 lb., and - so on, whereas London does not exceed a nominal 70 lb. In some of these industrial centres the hisrh pressure permits of sprinklers being fixed in the ceilings of the factories, and whenever the temperature rises above a certain minimum the valves are automatically released. Such a system is not so ready of adaptation to the needs of London, although it has been adopted in many factories, and for the highest buildings the most powerful engines are requisitioned. All these appliances have to be studied and cleaned and repaired from hour to hour, and a peaceful clay of drill is often more tiring than one on which disastrous fires spring up in-every quarter of the city. Each man is expected to familiarise himself with the duties of his immediate superior, so as to be able to take his place in a sudden emergency; and the record of the men is carefully followed by the superior officers, in order to make the best appointments when vacancies occur. In this service it is merit that wins the race, and the esprit of the corps is such that each member realises instinctively that he is the master of his own fate. It almost invariably happens that the appliances sent to a fire are in excess of the actual requirements. Of the number of fires attended by the metropolitan brigade in 1901 only 99 out of a total of 3,684 were classed as serious. I he Holborn station sent steamers no less than 463 times during the year, but only 21 were used. The number of historic fires is happily small, largely owing to the great celerity with which conflagrations are tackled in their early stages. It is only on rare occasions that a pitched battle is fought with the devouring element. At the fire in Finsbury in the summer of 1894 a force of 256 men had at their disposal 41 steamers, 14 manuals, 2 hydrants, a water tower, and 15 escapes. At Cripplegate in November, 1897, the number of men was 294, with 51 steamers, and the quantity of water used was estimated to reach the total of 15,000,000 gallons. Water was being played upon the ruins seventeen clays after the outbreak occurred. The arrangements for the prompt extinc- tion of fires throughout the kingdom are by no means so complete as they might be. The whole question was examined by a Select Committee of the House of Commons, and the evidence collected served to show that in many important centres of population there are practically no efficient appliances at all. Out of 1,025 urban districts in England alone, at least 262 admitted that they had no brigades, and many existing brigades are little more than a name. Provincial brigades may be classed as paid, part paid, voluntary, and private. Paid brigades are formed either o civilians or of police, and the important part that is taken by the police force in the boroughs may be gauged from the fact that out of the 13,511 men forming the borough police of England and Wales, 132 are wholly employed, and 1,263 are partly employed, in the fire service of their own localities. Thus there are 1,900 policemen in Liverpool, of whom 55 perform no duties except those of the fire brigade, while 357 others come up for a month’s fire duty—18 at a time, at intervals of about twenty months. By this means there is always a large reserve force of constables with a technical fire training, who are avail- able for emergencies. These fire policemen receive 2s. per week extra pay in acknowledg- ment of their special training, as well as a small additional sum, beginning with 2s. for the first hour, for any fires that are attended by them in this capacity. So also at Ports- mouth 19 policemen are told off for permanent fire duty, and the whole con- stabulary force is also trained in sections as