Its jurisdiction extends over an area of 10½ square miles, with a population of 70,000 souls. The annual expenditure is about £4,000, including pensions.
City Fire Brigade.
Superintendent—Stephen English, Esq.
Central Office—Guildhall.
Inspectors—Edward Peck and Stephen Amiss.
This establishment was organised in August, 1853; and in addition to the officers, is composed and manned by eighty Police Officers, who are regularly trained and drilled. Three Engines, six Hose Reels, three Fire Escapes, seven Fire Annihilators, Jumping Cloths, and other appliances for extinguishing fires and saving life, are kept ready for instant use.
Upon an alarm of fire at the Guildhall, the police throughout the city receive instantaneous notice thereof by means of signal rockets.
The city is supplied with water on the high pressure system, and fires can be extinguished without the aid of an engine. By means of Hose Reels, the power of a hundred engines can be brought to bear upon any premises on fire.
Mr. English, the present Superintendent, has received several honorary rewards for his intrepidity and exertions in the performance of his duty. A portable Fire Escape lately invented by Mr. English, and exhibited in London, is highly spoken of and approved by several scientific gentlemen. It consists of two cross bars with pulleys, three coils of rope with spring-hooks attached, and a leather belt, by means of which persons may be rescued in case of fire, in an expeditious and simple manner. The advantages of this escape, before all others hitherto invented, are, that you can rescue the inmates from the adjoining houses without passing through the fire—its simplicity, cheapness, portability, and safety. It can also be used up narrow courts and passages, and at the rear of houses, a desideratum which the London escapes do not possess.