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Show SOME VIEWS BY MR. PARKHURST. (Of the Pacific Board of Underwriters.) We have heard much adverse comment on our fire department's qualifications and more on the city's, water supply, and the majority of taxpayers will agree that in most cases the criticisms are tenable. It is unquestionably conceded that the fire In the Atlas block started on one of the top floors burning itself through the roof and down to the basement. It is claimed the department was slow to respond and that for a time the pressure was slight. At the inception of this fire, why was the pressure light and then increased? The fire occured at a time when the domestic consumption was at a minimum and if the claim Is true that the city mains were being fed through the supply pipe lines and not from the reservoirs, the opening of hydrants, for fire streams, started the water flowing flow-ing through the fire hose at say twenty-one feet a second, and regarding the domestic flow at two feet a second, the frlctional loss of pressure at the hydrants is somewhat accounted for. We have a gravity water system having many faults such as mains being too small in business districts, too many dead ends making circulating system impossible impos-sible fiecessarily resulting in loss by pressure, no lateral mains feeding distribution system, except |