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Show THE FIRB DERARTJHENrS NEEDS. V "."' .......... v ; ,- V.Vriting of the destruction of the Atlas block a"liI the' Work of the fire department, one of our con temporaries says, in the sane breath: i", itThe.Ioss i total, absolutely no part of it being i saved. IThe fire department did. splendid work." ;,: ' WeTbelieve this was not intended for sarcasm, X hut, only an effort to say a good word for somebody J ' a -commendable spirit, truly.- What Manager Parkhurst of the Pacific Board of Underwriters is reported to have said is more to the point, viz., that "the people of Salt Lake might well congratulate themselves .over a lucky escape from an extensive . conflagration. But the conations were favorable for a confined fire, as it began evidently on the . fourth floor and worked its way through into the floors below. The Central block caught through the roof from the Atlas-block." What is'the testimony . of those who witnessed the fire from an elevated position po-sition .a?fos3 the street FKOM ITS INCIPIENCY. "The barge fires that have occurred in Salt Lake," continued 3lr.' Par kkurst, "have been what might be called lucky fires, in that the conditions were favorable for conflnin-r the flames to the property destroyed. But some day, there may come a change in the good fortune, and .then look out." Chief De-vine's De-vine's declaration that the department never did better work is not to the point everybody knows that most of the fires the department has fought in the last dozen years have worsted the fighters. Ilis explanation that there was a shortage of men, sbort-agerof sbort-agerof hose and shortage of water seems absolutely correct, and easily accounts for most of the incompetency incom-petency of the department in its work Wednesday morning. Shall such shortage continue? Shall we wait till we are visited by an awful holocaust, or shall we have larger watermains, a fire department thoroughly equipped with apparatus, and a full quota of men perfectly disciplined and always in shape to fight fire? Such bravery as that displayed yesterday morning by Capt. John Stabb and others as well, is the stuff that heroes are made of, but with an insufficient amount of water and hose, not enough engines, a limited number of men indiffer-. erttliy-exercised and disciplined, a fire department must .necessarily be incompetent, occasioning such incongruous statements as that "the department did splendid work and the loss was total." 1-..V . . |