CHAPTER VIII. A PERILOUS SITUATION. CAPTAIN SHAW. IMPROVEMENTS OF THE METROPOLITAN BOARD AND OF THE LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL.
"The dock is on fire!"
On New Year's Day, 1866, some hours after St. Katherine's Dock had been opened for work, several persons came running to the gates from the adjoining streets, crying loudly, "The dock is on fire!"
At first the policemen would not believe the report. "We can see nothing," said they.
"But flames are bursting from the roof! Look! look!"
And before long the policemen were convinced that a serious fire was, indeed, in progress. It was in the upper floors of a division of a block of warehouses named F, six stories high, and by eleven o'clock they were blazing fast.
"Fire! Fire!"
The alarming cry rang through the dock, and superintendents, dock managers, and policemen hurried to the spot; while gangs of dock labourers were taken off their work, and set to quench the fire with buckets.
The conditions were somewhat similar to those of the great Tooley Street fire of five years or so before. The fire broke out on a floor where bales of jute and coir fibre were stored; and a huge heap of these goods was seen to be burning, and sending forth such a suffocating and blinding smoke, that the men were compelled to retreat.
"Shut the iron doors!" shouted the officers; and one after another the iron doors between the different warehouses were closed, though with one exception. This was the door connecting the fifth floor of F Warehouse with the fifth floor of H Warehouse. It was open wide, and one man after another endeavoured to close it by crawling towards it on the floor. But the smoke was so suffocating that the men had to be dragged back almost unconscious before they could reach the door.
Meantime, the dock fire-engines and hydrants had been got to work, and the dock engineer was able to turn on full pressure, so that soon powerful jets of water were thrown on the flames. A hydrant is, briefly, an elbow-shaped metal pipe, permanently fixed to a main water-pipe; and when the fireman attaches his hose to it, he can get at once a stream of water through the hose at about the same pressure as the water in the main.
The flames were spreading furiously, and the two upper floors of F Warehouse were blazing fast, throwing out such dense clouds of smoke, that the neighbourhood was darkened as by a thick fog.
The block of warehouses on fire towered up six stories high, and occupied half of the northern side of the dock next to East Smithfield. They formed a huge pile about 440 feet long by about 140 feet deep, the import part of the dock lying on the south side with its ships.
The block was built in a number of divisions or bays, each measuring about 90 by 50 feet, and separated by strong walls, which rose from basement to roof. Happily, the communication between these divisions was afforded by double folding-doors of iron, a space of about three feet existing between the double doors; they were believed to be fireproof; and with the one exception they were closed.
But, like the Tooley Street buildings, these warehouses were chiefly stored with very combustible materials. Tallow was here, which played such a bad part in 1861; spirits were here also, palm oil, tons of dyewood, flax, jute, and cotton. Labourers had been at work for some hours when the alarm was given, and men were busy on every floor. They were receiving the goods from the quays, and wheeling them along through the building, when the fire was discovered.
And now Captain Shaw, the chief who succeeded Braidwood as the head of the fire-brigade, dashed up with a steamer from Watling Street, which was then the headquarters of the brigade. He had received the alarm at about twenty minutes to twelve o'clock, and had telegraphed to all subsidiary stations.
Captain Shaw, who afterwards became Sir Eyre Massey Shaw, K.C.B., was born the same year as the steam fire-engine was first used—viz., in 1830. He was the son of Mr. B. R Shaw, of Monkstown, County Cork, and in due time entered the army. Retiring in 1860, he became chief of the Belfast Borough Forces, including police and fire-brigade, being appointed in the next year the chief of the London Fire-Brigade.
THE FIRST COMPLETE FLOATING STEAM FIRE-ENGINE, 1855.
Not only did he telegraph for land steam fire-engines to the conflagration; but a large steam-float, usually kept off Southwark Bridge, was also quickly under way. Soon he had eight land steamers and from seventy to eighty men on the spot, while he himself directed in person.
Mr. Collett, one of the Dock Company's secretaries, worked hard, and often at great peril; Mr. Graves and Mr. Stephens, also officials of the company, were busily engaged in directing removal of valuable materials; while about seventy men employed by Cubitt & Co. in rebuilding a warehouse, destroyed by fire in the previous October, rendered assistance.
The little army found themselves face to face with a difficult task. The fire was now burning furiously, and the smoke was well-nigh overpowering. The flames had reached the fourth, fifth, and sixth floors, and seemed working downward; while the burning jute sent forth such dense volumes of smoke, that the men were forced back again and again. But bravely they returned to their task; and taking advantage of the moments when the clouds cleared, they directed the hose to the most needful points.
For six hours the fire raged, until all the three upper floors were destroyed, and the third floor seriously damaged. The scene in the waning winter afternoon was sufficiently striking as the smoke gradually cleared and the blackened ruins became dimly visible. They were very dangerous, for the walls appeared likely to topple over at the slightest provocation.
About five o'clock, the firemen seemed to have gained the mastery, and Captain Shaw returned home; but later in the evening he was summoned again. Most mysteriously the flames had burst forth once more in fresh places, the upper parts of two adjacent warehouses of the same block had caught, and were in flames. By eleven o'clock the fire was blazing as furiously as ever.
Captain Shaw returned with new relays of men to assist those on the spot; and during the night and all the next day the force was busily at work. On the Monday night two firemen were so overcome by the smoke that they had to be removed, being nearly suffocated; but happily they recovered, and no life was lost during the fire. The streams of melted grease flowed from the burning warehouse into the quay, and thence to the dock basin, where by-and-by they cooled and solidified, looking something like snow on a frozen lake. Thirteen steam fire-engines and one float continued to throw immense quantities of water on the burning building; but the fire was not really subdued until the morning of January 3rd.
A few engines remained on the Wednesday and the Thursday, and threw water on the heated ruins, to cool them down and quench any latent fire; while on January 4th, men were busy skimming the dock basin,—which was thickly covered with the solid tallow and oil,—and loading the mass into barges.
After the conflagration, engines were employed in pumping water out of the vaults where it had collected, and as much jute was found injured by water as destroyed by fire. No doubt, it was the jute and the tallow and oil which rendered the conflagration so obstinate; but it was also found that while water collected to a great extent in some parts, yet it did not penetrate to other parts of even the same floor—a result which, perhaps, was due to the method of packing the jute.
In the end, about three-parts of the block of warehouses was burned. The amount of tallow in the four burning buildings was calculated to range between two and three thousand casks, some of which appear to have been saved; but several hundred barrels of cocoanut oil and palm oil were lost as well, and the coir fibre, flax, and jute burnt reached to a very large quantity, the total pecuniary loss being estimated at over £200,000.
This great fire proved a terrible object-lesson. For about two days and nights the engines and appliances of the brigade, with some two-thirds of the men, were engaged at this one conflagration. What if another great fire had broken out in those dark January days? The situation was fraught with the gravest peril.
No doubt, voluntary aid at fires used often to be relied upon, and in 1861 payment was given to assistants. But the Metropolitan Board now had the means of strengthening the brigade, and they proceeded to use it. In marked contrast to the 130 men and 20 stations of the Fire Establishment of 1863, were the 591 firemen and 55 land fire-engine stations of the brigade in 1889, when it passed over to the London County Council—figures which show a notable development.
SIR EYRE M. SHAW, K.C.B.
Further, there were also 83 coachmen and pilots, 131 horses, 150 engines (55 being worked by steam), 155 fire-escapes, and other ladders, with 33 miles of hose. By this time (1889) many provincial towns had established a fire-brigade on the London plan.
The London County Council, having no restriction as to powers of rating, adopted Captain Shaw's recommendations—made in April, 1889—of a large increase in the brigade, and resolved to add 138 firemen, 4 new stations, with steamers and manuals, and 50 fire-escapes, and to raise the number of electrical fire-alarms to over 600.
Since then, the increase has still continued, until in 1898 the brigade had an authorized fire-staff of nearly 1,100 men, with a certain number of store-keepers, etc.; while the telegraphic arrangements and distribution of stations were rendered so complete, that 100 men could be concentrated within fifteen minutes at any dangerous area for large fires.
Furthermore, out of the authorized staff, 134 men are on watch by day, and 369 at night, giving a total of 503 constantly on duty during the twenty-four hours—a force that compares wonderfully with the total strength of about 130 men at Braidwood's death in 1861.
This brigade strength of 1,048 included about 80 officers, 824 firemen, 96 coachmen, 17 pilots, and 32 men under instruction. To these must be added seventeen licensed watermen for navigating tug-boats, river-engines, etc., and also stores and office clerks. But twenty-four additional firemen, however, have been sanctioned, so that the complete staff would reach to about 1,080 men—a remarkable development of the staff of 80 men of the London Fire-Engine Establishment of 1832.
These figures are only given to show how greatly the brigade has grown; for in the course of a few years, it is not improbable that the numbers may be still further increased.
The number of stations has also been remarkably augmented. The 19 stations of 1832 have grown into nearly 200 for divers uses. Thus, there are 189 fire-escape stations, 59 stations with engines, 57 with hose-carts, 9 with hose- and ladder-trucks, 16 permanently established in centres of wide streets with fire-extinguishing and life-saving appliances, and 4 river stations.
The appliances of the brigade have also greatly increased. There are 230 fire-escapes and police-ladders, 59 land steam fire-engines, 57 six-inch manuals, 7 small manuals called curricles, 175 horses which we may rank as most useful appliances, and 24,284 hydrants.
These last-named are very important. They not only afford a ready and efficient means of throwing water on conflagrations, a means which is fast rendering the manual-engines of less and less importance; but they also yield a quick and ready method of water supply. Thus, in the year 1897 there were only three cases of unsatisfactory water supply.
In addition to 24,284 hydrants of the London County Council, the corporation of the City have 800 hydrants, which are used for watering the streets as well as for extinguishing fires. In the year 1897, no fewer than 466 fires were put out by hydrants and stand-pipes.
The increase of hydrants has been very conspicuous under the County Council. Thus, in March, 1889, the number was but 8,881, showing that no fewer than 15,403 were added during the first eight years of the Council's existence. No doubt, still more will follow. On March 31st, 1898, hydrants had been fixed or ordered in 97½ square miles of the county area, leaving a comparatively small space unprovided with these appliances. This space will doubtless be shortly supplied, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that, with the 800 in the City, the metropolis will ere long be sown with a total of about 30,000 hydrants, which, as the twentieth century dawns, may be regarded as among the most effectual means of fighting the fire at the disposal of the brigade.
FIRE-HYDRANT PLACED UNDER THE PAVEMENT.
The establishment of these excellent appliances dates from 1871, and is bound up with the system of constant water supply. By the Metropolis Water Act of that year, it was provided that a water company, after giving a constant supply, must notify the fact to the local authority—now the County Council—which must then specify the fire-plugs or hydrants required, and the Council has the power under the Act of requiring water companies to provide a constant supply within parts of their districts. Hydrants are fully charged from the main, and have a commanding cock or tap attached, so that a supply of water can be obtained at once.
The use of these appliances is very important. Planted at convenient and commanding spots,—often at the corners of streets or roadways, and at varying distances apart, ranging from fifty to about four hundred feet, according to the circumstances of the locality, and marked also, not only by the plate in the pavement, but by the letter H, placed in a conspicuous position near,—the fireman can now, at almost a moment's notice, find the hydrant, and obtain an ample supply of water for his engine, or even a jet of water for the fire, before an engine is on the spot. Very different from the troublesome and hindering work of floundering about, possibly in fog or rain or snow, to find the fire-plug, and then to find the turncock which governed the plug. On snowy or foggy nights, the difficulty and delay were sometimes very great; and the substitution of an extensive system of hydrants, with their quickly-obtained water-jets for the old fire-plugs, may rank as one of the most efficient means of fire extinction in the closing years of the nineteenth century.
Firemen being thus interested in the pressure of water in the mains, an apparatus for recording the pressure automatically was fixed up at the fire-brigade headquarters at Southwark Bridge Road in November, 1898. A clock stands at the top of the instrument, and under the clock is a roll of paper, having the hours of day and night marked upon it, and divided into sections. A small pipe connected with the main runs under the big engine-room, and acts upon mechanism beneath the paper roll, and the clock and the column of water, and its pressure per inch, are marked in red ink upon the sheet, varying perhaps from forty up to seventy-five or even eighty pounds per square inch.
At noon each day the sheet can be removed, and forms a permanent record of the variation in water pressure in the mains of the neighbourhood.
But if the number of hydrants is large, the area to be protected by the brigade is also very large. Including the ancient city of London, which is estimated to cover about a square mile, the area measures about 118 square miles. Of these, twelve are estimated by the fire-brigade committee to be covered by parks and open spaces, where fire-hydrants will probably never be needed. This leaves, however, a net area of 106 square miles, extending from Sydenham to Highgate, and from Plumstead to Roehampton, to be efficiently protected by the brigade.
Another means of water supply has been suggested. In his evidence at the Cripplegate Fire Enquiry, Mr. John F. Dane, an ex-officer of the Metropolitan Fire-Brigade, suggested that at the centre of the junction of the most important streets surrounded by large buildings underground tanks should be placed, and supplied by the main water-pipes. The tanks would be empty until required, and would be under the control of the brigade, while the hydrants should still be maintained for service. Such tanks were in use at Leeds and at Salford.
The objection is raised, however, that the streets of the City are already too crowded with pipes, while advantage of the pressure from the water-main is lost, and also the vacuum caused by the engine.
Noticing other improvements, we observe that the number of fire-alarm posts has also been greatly increased. The alarm consists of a red post in the street, with a glass face at the top front. The glass is readily broken, and the handle within it pulled, when a loud electric bell rings at the nearest fire-station. The Post-Office provides and maintains the fire-alarms; and Commander Wells, chief officer of the brigade, has devised a portable telephone, which can be plugged into a fire-alarm post, and a message sent by it from a fire to the station. Arrangements have been made with the Post-Office to supply the telephones and make the plug-holes. Over 2,380 fire-alarms were raised in 1897, of which 363 were maliciously-given false alarms. Practical jokes of this kind have been heavily punished, as they richly deserve.
Many false alarms are also given which cannot be regarded as malicious, but are genuine mistakes, such as of supposed chimney fires. Over 500 of these were recorded in one year. In 1898, the number of malicious false alarms was happily less—viz., 270; while the full record of false alarms reached 830.
The total number of fires in the metropolis in that year was 3,585—an average of nearly ten per day. This total gives an increase of 571 above the average; but only 205 out of the whole 3,585 were serious. There seems no doubt but that the public are learning to use the fire-alarms more readily and to give earlier intimation of fires. But, as the chief officer points out, while everybody knows the nearest letter-box, very few comparatively even now seem to know the nearest fire-alarm. Lamp-posts near the alarms are now painted red, and are fitted with a red pane of glass in order to attract attention; and we imagine the probability is that the alarms will be increasingly used at even the slightest appearance of fire.
Not only is each fire-station connected with a dozen or more fire-alarms in its neighbourhood, but it is also in electric communication with other fire-stations. There are 114 lines of telephone between the stations, and sixteen between brigade- and police-stations; while electric communication exists between stations and ninety-eight public or other buildings. In fact, the whole fire-brigade establishment is bound together by a web of electric wire, the centre being the headquarters at Southwark.
The remarkable organization of the brigade, famous for its leaders, famous for the bravery and skill of its men, and famous for the number and variety of its efficient appliances, has been a growth of comparatively few years. Starting in 1825 with the union of a few fire-office companies, it grew in seventy-three years to a remarkably strong and increasing force, with a multitude of hydrants, stations, horsed escapes, fire-alarms, and other appliances.
The development attained in these seventy-odd years, as compared with the hundreds of years before, is surely marvellous, though doubtless some seeds of the development—as in the introduction of the modern fire-engine—were sown before. But step by step it has proceeded, utilizing now the discoveries of science and now the work of the engineer, until it has reached its great position of usefulness and of high esteem.
It would be tedious to mark every detail of development. The work begun by his predecessors was carried still further by Captain Shaw, and under him the London Brigade became one of the most efficient in the world.
COMMANDER WELLS.
He retired with a well-deserved pension in 1891, after about thirty years of service, and was succeeded by Mr. J. Sexton Simonds. Five years later Mr. Simonds retired; and in November, 1896, Commander Lionel Wells, R.N., was appointed chief officer. The brigade has also a second officer—Mr. Sidney G. Gamble; and in January, 1899, a third officer was appointed—Lieutenant Sampson Sladen, R.N.
A few months after his accession, and in answer to the request of the fire-brigade committee of the County Council, the chief officer submitted a scheme for additional protection, including certain regulations of brigade management.
Of this scheme, the more prominent features were the introduction of horsed fire-escapes, and the distribution of the men in small stations, with horses, whence they can be speedily concentrated wherever required. In short, the chief officer's object is that, at any call, the firemen may be able, if the machine leave the station at once, to arrive at the fire within five minutes' time; while the principle of station-work should be that each station is responsible for a certain area in its neighbourhood.
The committee agreed with the opinions of the chief officer, and on February 8th, 1898, the full Council adopted the committee's proposals. Steps were forthwith taken to carry out the scheme, which thus marks another stage of development.
But let us visit the headquarters, and see for ourselves something of this great organization actually at work.