LONDON FIRES IN 1883.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1864, 17 June 1884, Page 4

LONDON FIRES IN 1883.

Tgß^anuual leportol Captain Shaw on llhtr London files in ISS3, which was recently presented to the Metropolitan Board of Works, states that the numbei calls for fiivs, or supposed fiies, rt- ■ derived during the year had been 2630 Of these 337 weie fals>c alarms, 149 prove ! ,*a bo only chimney alarms, and 2141 were calls for fiics, ot w hich 184 iesulte.l ,iu'seiious damage, and 1960 in slight .damage. The fiics of ISB3, compared with those of 1882, show an increase of 218 ; and, compaied with the a\eragc of the last tea yeais, a-n ineicaae of _446 /The number of fires in the metiopolis in A\hich life has been seriously endangered during the year ISS3 has been 1 12, and the number in these in which life has been lost has been 29. The number of persons seriously endangered by fire has been 176, of whom 137 weie saved, and 39 lost their lives Of the 39 lost, 13 were taken out alive, and died aftei -^ wards in hospital or elsewheie. and 20 >yere suffocated or burnt to death. The •utumber of calls for chimneys had been 4353. Of these 1501 proved to be false alarms. 2SG2 weie for chimneys on fire In these cases there was no attendance of engines, but only of fire men with hand pumps. The numbei of journeys made by the fire engines of the f>s land stations has been 29.550, and the total distance run has been G7,550 miles The quantity of water used for extinguishing fires in the metiopohs dining tlie year has been 28,998,078 gallons, or about 130,00:) tons. Of tins qiantity about 67,000 tons, or rather more than one half of the whole was taken from the liver, canal*, and docks, and the remainder from the street pipes. During the year there have been 12 cases of short supply of •water, 28 of late attendance of turncocks, and 4of no attendance, making altogether 44 cases in which the water arrangements were unsatisfactory ; but, notwithstanding this, all the water companies have used the greater efforts in their power to ser\ c us. The strength of the brigade is as follows :— 5.5 land fireengine stations, 12 btieet stations, 127 fire-escape stations, 4 floating stations, 2 large land steam file-engines, 40 small land'steim fire engines, 87 6-inch manual fiie-engines, 37 under G inch manual fire engines, 147 fire escapes and long scaling ladders, 388 fiiemen (including chief officer, second officer, superintendents, and all ranks), and 82 diiveis and other employes.