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Show IE RECORDS OF PAST YEAR ARE GRATIFYING Two Serious Blazes During November Entail Largest Losses; Alarms Were Received Late. MOTORIZATION OF ALL EQUIPMENT Will Mean Large Saving to Department as Well as ' Greatly Increasing Efficiency. . The past year promised to be the most successful in the history of the Salt Lake fire department until the month of November. No-vember. Two large fires which were not discovered until well under way spoiled the record of the year. "The past year has been highly gratifying grati-fying in results until November," said Fire Chief W. H. By water. "The increased in-creased number of Inspections and the support given by the citizens of Salt Lake jliave made it a successful year. "No fires of importance have occurred in the business district. This is a credit to the department and to the city. No fireman was seriously injured during the year and the efficiency of the depart- ! ment has steadily increased." J Mayor Mont Ferry and Chief Bywater have an exhaustive plan consisting of the motorization of the entire department. According to Chief Bywater, the plan will mean a large saving to the department in every way and will also add materially to its efficiency and place it ahead of any city of its size in the United States. Will Help Rates. ' j It will not only give better protection to the city, says the chief, but it will enable citizens to obtain better rates from the board of underwriters. A new combination com-bination motor engine will arrive in Salt Lake Wednesday and will be placed at No. 2 fire station, at 19 North Second West street. The machine is a combination combina-tion of pump, hose and chemical. It will cost $$500 and weighs 10,000 pounds. The fire department numbers eighty-seven eighty-seven men and is divided into six stations; sta-tions; Central station, on Fast First South street; No. 2, at 13 North Second West street; No. 3. at Sugarhouse; No. 4, on I street between Fourth and Fifth avenues; ave-nues; No. o. on Ninth South between Ninth and Tenth East streets, and No. 6, on Eighth West and Post streets. The alarm office in the public safety building Is one of the most modem in the United States. The operator can open; the door to every fire station in the city ; instantly. Every alarm, no matter how it is sent in. is received here and acted j upon instantly. Every tall is registered on tape auto- , matically, whether it is received by tele- phone- or through the regular source. , Thus tho operator can look back and tell at once the exect time a call was; received. The call is also registered at the telephone company's office. New Alarm Boxes. Ten new alarm boves have been installed in-stalled in the city, making a total of 10. Four hundred and seventy-five fires is the total for the. year. In addition, the department answered 110 calls which were either false alarms or unnecessary. Small boys took delight in bringing out; the apparatus until active steps were taken to apprehend the culprits by offer- Ing a reward for information leading to their arrest. Several boys were caught 1 in the act and brought before the police. : It is estimated that the department covered 1750 miles in answering calls, or i a little more than the distance from Salt! Lake to Chicago. Seventeen miles of j hose were used to fight the fires. Seven j thousand inspections were made In the; business district to cut down fire hazards. The water pressure has kept up to a j splendid degree all year, averaging nine-j ty pounds to the square inch. j The. months of June and July were the j heaviest months for the fire department. Seventy-one runs were made in July I and sixty-five in June. Grass fires were j the principal cause of numerous alarms. The smallest number of runs was in Feb- ruary, when only, twenty-eight alarms were received. The fire loss for the year totals S14S.000. The month of November contributed $S2.-000 $S2.-000 to this total. The Liberty school and the Utah Oil Refining company fires totaled to-taled a loss of $66,000 during this month. Loss Not Great. This loss is not great according to officials offi-cials of the department, considering that the value of the property involved during the vear was twelve million dollars. The Utah Oil Refining plant caught fire on the night of November 17. The origin of ihe di-safcter has never been definitely determined. The flames had ginned reat headwuy before the alarm was received .it headquarters. Great tanks of oil threatened to explode from the heat at anv moment. Heedless of the dancer they encountered, the firemen dashed Into the Ilaming yard. A train heavily loaded with oil stood near the burning warehouse. Chief Bywater personally directed the removal of the oil train and returned to the attack un the flames. Some of the tanks exploded and debris was hurled high In the air. The tire was one of the most spectaculn r ever witnessed wit-nessed in Salt Lake, as the great clouds of black smoke hung over the scene shot with quick red flames. Constant streams of water were turned on the remaining tanks to prevent explosions. After a battle lasting for nearly twelve hours the fire was extinguished. One fireman fire-man who had been exposed to alternate heat and cold wetting from the hose streams, fell in a faint, but recovered within a few hours. Lessons Learned. Many lesions were learned from this fire according to the fire -officials. As a result re-sult the company is installing an expen sive nre prevention apparatus. in case of a fire chemicals are poured out from a central point into the tanks of oil through pipes. A froth is produced upon the surface sur-face of the oil which prevents fire or explosion. ex-plosion. The Liberty school fire occurred on the night of November 7, election night. The origin of the fire is veiled in mystery, a neglected candle and overheating both being be-ing advanced as the cause. Evidently the flames had gained great headway before they became visible and an alarm was turned In. Tne apparatus from the Central Cen-tral and other stations made record-breaking runs, but the fire had done its wfork. Only the walls were left standing. According to Chief Bywater the garrett had not been bulkheaded and acted as a great draught to carry the fire the length of the building. i Only one accident occurred during the ; year to apparatus rushing to firos. A three horse truck from No. 4 station : crashed into a street car at Third South and Second West streets. Three firemen were slightly injured and two horses were killed. More Time Off. Recently the firemen were granted thirty-six hours off duty each week through a city ordinance being passed, to that effect. ef-fect. In tiie past only twenty-four hours had been allowed for each man to be absent ab-sent from his post of duty. Few citizens realize the appreciation with which the new order was received, according to the chief. Men who can return home every night to their families would consider it a great hardship to remain absent from their homes the period of time a fireman is on duty. Firemen do not lead the Inactive life that the average citizen imagines. In the rear of the central station is a large workshop work-shop equipped with modern apparatus of every kind. Recently an acetylene welding weld-ing apparatus was added to the equipment. equip-ment. The machine is used for welding steel or iron and shoots a powerful flame. It is portable and could be used at fires where an entrance would be desirable through steel or iron, as in a bank vault. During the summer an old patrol wagon from the police department was transformed trans-formed bv the firemen into a modern hose wagon worth fully $1000 at a small cost. At present another old police machine is 1 being built into a fully equipped ambulance ambu-lance to be used by the emergency hospital. hos-pital. Fire prevention day was observed on October 9 throughout the city and firemen fire-men delivered lectures on fire prevention before all the public school children and tho two high schools. On Friday, December 8, the Firemen's Relief association held their annual ball. It was the most successful daice ever held by the association and the fund was increased by $1121. The society cares for sick and disabled firemen and their I widows and orphans. |