[CHAPTER XI]
FIRE-ALARMS AND AUTOMATIC FIRE EXTINGUISHERS
Assuming that a town has a well-appointed fire brigade, equipped with the most up-to-date engines, it still cannot be considered efficiently protected against the ravages of the fire-fiend unless the outbreak of a fire can be notified immediately to the stations, and local mechanical means of suppression come into action almost simultaneously with the commencement of the conflagration. "What you do, do quickly" is the keynote of successful fire-suppression; and its importance has been practically recognised in the invention of hundreds of devices, some of which we will glance at in the following pages.
The electric circuit is the most valuable servant that we have to warn us of danger. Dotted about the streets are posts carrying at the top a circular box, which contains a knob. As soon as a fire is observed, anyone may run to such a post, smash the glass screening the knob, and pull out the latter. This action flashes the alarm to the nearest fire-station, and a few minutes later an engine is dashing to the rescue. Help may also be summoned by means of the ordinary telephone exchanges or from police-stations in direct telephonic communication with the brigade depôts.
All devices depending for their ultimate value on human initiative leave a good deal to be desired. They presuppose conditions which may be absent. For instance, an electric wire in a large factory ignites some combustible material during the night. A passer-by may happen to see flames while the fire is in an early stage. On the other hand, it is equally probable that the conflagration may be well established before the alarm is given, with the result that the fire brigade arrives too late to do much good.
What we need, therefore, is a mechanical means of calling attention to the danger automatically, with a quickness which will give the brigade or people close at hand a chance of strangling the monster almost as soon as it is born, and with a precision as to locality that will save the precious time wasted in hunting for the exact point to be attacked.
Mr. G. H. Oatway, M.I.E.E., in a valuable paper read before the International Congress of Fire Brigades in London in 1903, says that the difference between the damage resulting from a fire signalled in its early stage, and the same fire reported when it has spread to two or three floors, is often the difference between a nominal loss and a "burn out." The reformer, he continues, who aims at reducing fire waste must turn his attention primarily to hastening the alarm. The true cure of the matter is, not what quantity of gear it takes to deal with huge conflagrations, but how to concentrate at the earliest stage upon the outbreaks as they occur, and to check them before they have grown beyond control. He cites the fire record of Glasgow of 1902, from which it appears that three fires alone accounted for 40 per cent. of the year's total loss, ten fires for 73 per cent., and the other 706 for only 27 per cent., or an average of £72 per fire. Had the first three fires only been notified at an earlier stage, nearly £72,000 would have been saved. Captain Sir E. M. Shaw, late Chief of the London Fire Brigade, has put the following on record: "Having devoted a very large portion of the active period of my working life in bringing into general use mechanical and hydraulic appliances for dealing with fires after they have been discovered, I nevertheless give and have always given the highest place to the early discovery and indication of fire, and not by any means to the steam, the hydraulic, or the numerous other mechanical appliances on which the principal labours of my life have been bestowed."
A fire given fifteen minutes' start is often hard to overtake. Imagine a warehouse alight on three floors before the alarm is raised! Engines may come one after another and pour deluges of water on the flames, yet as likely as not we read next morning of "total destruction." No stitch in time has saved nine!
The sad part about fires is that they represent so much absolute waste. In commercial transactions, if one party loses the other gains; wealth is merely transferred, and still remains in the community. But in the matter of fire this is not the case. Supposing that a huge cotton mill is burnt down. The re-erection will, it is true, cause a lot of money to change hands; but what has resulted from the money that has already been put into the mill? Nothing. So many hundred thousands of pounds have been dematerialised and left nothing behind to represent them. The great Ottawa fire of a few years ago may be remembered as a terrible example of such total loss of human effort.