Fighting a Fire

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 edition. Excerpt: ... THE RISKS OF A FIREMAN'S LIFE. THE risks and dangers that firemen face in the discharge of their duty are known to very few. The outside world -- the public at large -- hears little or nothing of them. Fires, in a large city like New York, are of such common occurrence that the newspapers rarely give them more than a paragraphic notice; and, in fact, all accounts of fires to-day are condensed so as to occupy the smallest possible space. Of course conflagrations of any magnitude receive their share of recognition in the columns of the daily papers; and the papers are never stinting in the praise they give the firemen for the brave and skilful work that they perform; but the Fire Departments throughout all our large cities are so perfectly organized to-day that the "large fire" does not often occur, and detailed accounts are therefore seldom found in the papers. When we see a fire company dashing on its way 106 in answer to an alarm, we stop to admire the stirring picture that it presents. Instinctively we look in the direction in which it is proceeding for the appearance of smoke, if it be daytime, or the glare of the flames, if it be at night, to indicate the location of the fire. We perhaps see none, and pass on our way; and in the whirl of city life this incident is soon forgotten. And yet this company may return with many of its members bruised and sore, while others are perhaps conveyed to near-by hospitals, mortally wounded. It is not always the fire that makes the biggest show that is the hardest to fight. The fire that goes roaring through the roof of a building, lighting up the city for miles around, is sometimes much more easily subdued than the dull, smoky cellar or sub-cellar fire that forces the men to face the severest kind...