28
Mar

Small Blaze Another Sermon

   Posted by: admin   in Fire, People

The Fort Dodge Messenger: March 28, 1905

Small Blaze Another Sermon

This Morning Brings Out Need of New Wagon

The Loss by Water Was Heavy

Chemicals Would Have Put out All Fires in Months With Exception of Two, and Would Have Prevented a Great Deal of Loss in all of Them.

Fire was discovered in the Peter Reilly house on North Seventh street this morning at seven o’clock, and the fire department made one of the best runs that has been made in a long time. it was not more than five minutes after the alarm was turned in till the team was on the ground and the hose stretched. The damage to the house was comparatively slight, amounting to in the neighborhood of $100. On the furniture, however, on account of the water, it amounted to between $300 and $400. The house was occupied by the George Gilman family. The losses were fully covered by insurance.

The fire started from sparks that fell on the roof next to the kitchen chimney, and nothing was known of it by the family until the alarm had been turned in. The roomers, Frank Boyle and J.H. McDermott, heard the crackling on the roof as the shingles were burning, but thought it was hail and paid no further attention to it.

This fire is another argument that is in favor of the chemical wagon that is so badly needed by the local fire department. Had they been equipped with chemicals this morning, there would have been no need of turning on the water at all, and there would have been none of the loss that resulted to the furnishings.

With regard to the matter, one of the members of the fire department said to a Messenger representative this morning. “It certainly is a shame that the department has no chemical wagon. It is a fact that with the exception of just two fires, every blaze that we have had the past several months could have been controlled in less time and with not more than one tenth the damage to the furnishings by use of chemicals. The chemicals properly used on a small fire do the work quickly and completely and with absolutely no damage to other parts of the house, while it takes but a few seconds for a two and a half inch stream of water to get into all parts of a residence and damage everything.”

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