Firemen and Their Exploits / With some account of the rise and development of fire-brigades, of various appliances for saving life at fires and extinguishing the flames.

by F. M. Holmes

The question may well be asked; for the tall New York houses seem to reach to the sky.

"Ordinary ladders won't do."

"I guess not," replies the New Yorker. "Why, as far back as 1885, fourteen out of every hundred buildings were too high to be scaled that way. We build tall here."

"Then, how about the fire-escape?" asks the Englishman.

"Wa'll, iron ladders or steps are permanently fixed to some of the top windows. But the firemen bring their hook-and-ladder; that is a most valuable contrivance."

Pursuing his enquiries, the Englishman would find that a hook-and-ladder consisted, briefly, of a strong pole, with steps projecting on either side, and a long and stout hook at the top. The fireman can crash this hook through a window, and hang the pole firmly over the window-sill; the hook, of course, plunging right through into the room.

Climbing up this pole, with another length in his hand, the fireman can hang the second length into the window next above, and so on, up to the very top of the building. He has also a hook in his belt, which he can fasten to the ladder, when necessary, to steady and secure himself. In fact, a well-trained and courageous fireman can climb up the tallest structures by these appliances.

These hooked poles are made of various lengths, ranging from about 10 to 20 feet and more. Some single ladders and extensions reach to over 80 feet; but it will be seen at once that a succession of, say, ten- or twelve-feet hooked-pole ladders can be easily handled to reach from floor to floor, and that, used by an active and well-trained fireman, it can become a most important appliance for saving life.

St. Louis appears to have been the pioneer city in the use of this apparatus; but New York and other corporations have followed suit. Since 1883 every candidate for the New York Fire Department must undergo a course of instruction in the use of this and other appliances, and the thorough learning in this work renders them better men for their ordinary duties.

The ladders are wheeled to the fire on a truck 50 feet long, and called a "hook-and-ladder truck." It carries ladders of different lengths, and also conveys pickaxes, shovels, battering-rams, fire-extinguishers, life-lines, etc., and tools for pushing open heavy doors. The majority of the ladders are placed on rollers, and can be removed at once without disturbing those resting above them.