“This is Frank Decker’s boy,” said the chief, as he presented Bruce to the officer, “and we’re going to try and make a fireman of him. I’ve brought him around here to show him what a fire engine is like.”
“Frank Decker’s boy!” exclaimed the captain, as he shook Bruce cordially by the hand.
“Well, all I can say is, you’ve got good material to work with. I knew Frank this twelve years or more, and a better fireman never rode on a tender.”
“You see,” said the chief, as he led the boy through the engine house, “this is a double company. That is to say, there’s an engine and tender here to go out at the first alarm, and another to move up and take their places, so as to be ready in case an alarm comes in while the first company is off at the fire. Of course this engine that stands right here in front by the door is the one to go first, and its tender, or hose wagon as it used to be called in old times, goes with it. Then they move the second engine and tender right up to the front; the second relay of horses drop down and take their places in the other stalls, and within two minutes after the alarm was first sounded, there is a complete equipment ready to go out to any other fires that may occur in the vicinity.
“Now I want you to notice the way this engine is kept ready for action at a second’s notice. You see from the gauge that there is twenty pounds pressure of steam in her boiler now, although there is no fire lit, and she has been standing here all day. That is because the steam is kept up from a fire in the basement, and the connection is made by these pipes that come up through the floor. The minute the engine starts, the connection with the pipes underneath is shut off automatically, and then as soon as the wheels cross the threshold of the building, the fire is lit, and as the swift motion of the street acts as a sort of draught, there is a big blaze going in less than two minutes. There’s a little contrivance I want you to see, and although it may seem like a trivial one to you, it is really a very useful time-saving device.”
As he said this, he took from a rack above the ash-pan a pine stick about six inches long, around one end of which was wrapped a quantity of rags soaked in kerosene, from the midst of which protruded the heads of half a dozen matches.
“Now I’ll explain to you,” continued Chief Trask, “the value of this little torch. If we depended on matches, or took our chances of running to get a light from the gas-jet or anything like that, we would certainly lose time, and might have to stop on the way to the fire and beg a light. We can’t afford to take any such chances as that. The engineer just grabs this torch and scratches it. The first bit of flame lights up the oil-soaked rags, and then he throws the whole thing into the fire box which is filled with pine shavings also soaked in oil, and there’s the fire started. Then while he’s traveling through the streets, he throws in whatever wood and coal are necessary and so he gets all the blaze that’s needed before he has gone half a dozen blocks. Then you see that wrench hanging there beside the torch. Just before the engine gets to the hydrant they want to stop at, the engineer grabs that wrench, jumps off and runs ahead so as to have the hydrant open by the time the engine comes along. They attach the hydrant connection and then the tender comes up and passes them, leaving one end of the hose, and drives on until they have let out as many lengths as they want to use.”
All this is done without any waste of time, for as I said to you before, there are no spare seconds in the New York fire service. Now come up stairs with me and I’ll show you the sleeping quarters, which are somewhat similar to those around at our own place, except that they have three brass sliding poles instead of one, as we have. When the men are in bed, they have what they call a turnout on the floor beside them. “Here is the turnout.” He pointed, as he spoke, to a pair of trousers attached to a pair of rubber boots and so placed that they could be drawn on instantly.
“There’s a gong here, too, you see, as well as down stairs, and when the alarm rings, the fireman jumps out of bed and, you might say, right into his turnout, pulls the trousers up and runs for the sliding pole, and there’s a race every time to see who will get down first. The driver and engineer always sleep next to the poles so that they can get down ahead of the others. Down stairs there are two men on duty all the time at night. When the alarm sounds and the horses run to their places, these men must be at their heads to snap their collars and hitch the reins to their bits. The driver jumps into his seat, and the instant he sees that the harness is on all right, and that he has the number of the box from which the alarm has come, he starts away as fast as he can go. He doesn’t wait to find out whether the engineer is there, or whether the other men have slid down the pole and are in their places—that’s their business, not his. He has just one idea, and that is to get out into the street as soon as he can, and get to the fire before any other engine. The captain of the company rides on the ash-pan behind the engineer. His lieutenant rides with the driver of the tender, and the other men ride on the tender.”
Just at this moment the gong rang sharply, and the horses, released from their stalls by the same electric current, sprang to their places in front of engine and hose carriage, and then a moment later trotted quietly back again.