The Evening Star TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2366, 1 November 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1870.

As has ever been the case, the Dunedin Volunteer Fire Brigade did their duty yesterday fearlessly and faithfully, and on the whole the crowd of spectators who assembled to witness the tire behaved in a much more orderly manner than might have been expected, when the few police who could be spared to keep order are considered. But it is evident that we are yet deficient in those arrangements which provide for that full freedom of action so essential to the promptness required in emergencies. The Brigade were there with their appliances, cool enough, steady enough, and ready enough ; but even in their most important operations they were hampered by crowds of persons pressing round them. No doubt many of these would have lent a willing hand, and were ready to put forth their strength and do what they could. Some of them did lend a hand ; but in this, as in every other case, it was only to damage, through not being trained to act under order’s, and to work in concert with their fellow-men. In cases of danger or emergency, few arc

gifted with that cool presence of mind that enables them to grasp danger at a glance and devise a remedy. This, in some respects, is a result of training, and it is on this account that a brigade such as our Volunteer Five Brigade is so valuable. The desire to render assistance is a generous impulse, but it should be controlled by judgment, and unfortunately this is seldom evinced by a heterogeneous crowd of lookers-on at a fire. Two instances occurred yesterday that prompt us to bring this matter under notice. It was of the utmost importance, very early during the fire, that the hose should be extended as far as possible, in order to throw water upon the pile of timber at the back of the burning store ; so in order to assist the members of the Brigade, several willing hands laid hold of the hose to stretch it out as straight as was prudent. But it would appear that they exerted too much force, for through their efforts the neck of the hydrant gave way, and thus the supply of water was cut off at the very moment when it seemed most needed. It is very hard to keep hands off when the idea possesses a man’s mind that he can render a service. But when men’s nerves are excited as in the case of a fire, unless they are trained in the use of the appliances they endeavor to handle, they are apt to do more than is needed, and use greater exertion than the exigency requires. On many occasions we have seen furniture destroyed through over-anxiety to save it. We have seen articles thrown out of windows on to the pavement, that a moment’s reflection would have pointed out would be just as useless if smashed on the pavement as if burnt in the fire. The nature of the property, and the utter impossibility of saving anything in the store yesterday, prevented any such nervous developments. But one circumstance occurred that marked the necessity for measures for retaining street order more than anything we have yet observed. When the man Homan threw himself into the flames, the sensation of horror that ran through the spectators produced every variety of effect. The timid shrieked, the brave rushed forward to save him. Mr Mills, with his well-known cool daring, was the first to seize him ) and when his hand slipped, and he was obliged to recoil from the volume of flame that met him, for a moment the horror of despair seemed to cause every one to pause. His fate appeared inevitable. Instead of seconding the noble attempt to save him, the poor creature had drawn up his feet and crawled further into the flames. Disciplined effort now asserted its superiority. The Brigade turned a jet of water on the spot, the flames were checked, and Mr Hughes, one of the Brigade, succeeded in rescuing the man from the death he had so evidently sought. But the same check to the flames that enabled Hughes to save him permitted the crowd to rush forward, and in their eagerness to assist they impeded each other. We do not know that we were ever more mercilessly jostled in a London mob than in that frantic, excited crowd. Three or at most four men were needed to place the man in the ear that conveyed him to the Hospital. They would have done it promptly and without difficulty ; but instead of that there were scores or hundreds crowding round, swaying backwards and forwards, in their anxiety to see or to help ,’ so that it was almost as difficult, though less dangerous, a task to place him in the car as to drag him from the fire. Now what we want to draw attention to is the necessity for maintaining order under such circumstances, and this can only be effected by the help of a body of men accustomed to act together at the word of command. In England, before the organisation of the present police system, on the first alarm of fire in a garrison town, a body of soldiers used invariably to be marched down to the place, and to clear a space to enable the firemen to act without interruption. Not one was permitted to pass that line of bayonets who was not interested or authorised to'help. Some fifty years ago the Volunteers of that diy were called out on such occasions. Were our Volunteers to be mustered on the first alarm of fire in Dunedin, and to be entrusted with a like duty, they would confer a great benefit upon society. We do not know the law of the case, nor whether they could legally act; bub they are an eminently conservative force, ready trained and armed. It would be impossible to provide police sufficient to keep every place clear that is available for action ; and if the plan we suggest is not possible, some municipal arrangement of special constables should be adopted. We hope this hint will not be lost sight of.