GOING TO A FIRE.

Evening Star, Issue 5589, 5 February 1881, Page 2 (Supplement)

GOING TO A FIRE.

One of the most exciting Eights a stranger can witness in the lower part of New York is the Fire Department responding to an alarm of tire in the daytime. A representative of the ' Journal' describes a scene familiar to all our citizens, but one that many of our readers have probably never witnessed. We chanced to be in Broadway a day or two since (says the writer) when the street was crowded with vehicles of all kinds, and the sidewalks with a regular procession of pedestrians. Suddenly the gong of an approaching steamer sounded wirh its sharp, sudden, and continuous jingle. There was a rush of teams to clear the centre of the street, and a rush of po'iVmen to aid the drivers in getting their vehicles against the kerb. Then came a fireman running for dear life, shouting " Clear the road !" and right behind him came the steamer, the horses on a galiop, and a cloud of smoke issuing from the smoke-stack. A moment, and she was gone. Then came a hook-and-ladder truck, with sounding gong, horses on the jump, and the members of the company clinging to their precarious perches on top. Next came the salvage corps, gong sounding, horses running, and the men urging them as if their lives depended on their speed. It was an exciting event, lasting but a moment, but quickening to the pulse of the laziest onlooker. Thousands of persons had stopped to catch a glimpse of the passing firemen, and for over a mile Broadway was jammed with vehicles and pedestrians, all of wliom had turned out to make room for the firemen, on whose speed might depend the property and lives of some of our citizens. To a stranger, the sight must have been a thrilling one, and impressed him with the efficiency of our fire department. We know that to our soldiers the heavy rumble of the apparatus seemed like the movement of artillery to the front, and to presage an impending battle. And so it was a battle —« fight between trained firemen and an enemy aa old as the earth or heavens, and one that has scourged mankind since time was.