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Otago Witness, Issue 1586, 15 April 1882, Page 19

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Sir Henry "Parkes, like everyone else who visits San Francisco, was greatly impressed with the efficiency, of j the, fire, brigades sjndtheir arrangements. „, Writing to Sir John Robertson, he saya :— , , ' The organisations f ®r .the extinction of .fires in San Erancisco are simply marvellous. ,Tho captains ,aqd superintendents have given themselves much trouble to enable me to.understand them. The Stevenson street I'ire Brigade [establishment exhibits surprising discipline, both in -horses andi.men.- A i visitor enters a > large apartment with an office at one corner. Two fire-engines are standing' in perfect readiness to go out, and behind therm the, requisite number ol> 'horses are J; standipg ready harnessed in open stalls without, fastenings. On each side of .this' apartment there ;i4 a steep stair with a smdoth wooden, glide, bpside it communicating with the upper floor. , The , young men who man> the engines live on' this upper floor. Besides i a comfortable bedroom they have ' living-rooms, with books, a piano, and billiard-table. : When in,bed eachma.nhas his trousers with' his bpots .inside, (1 thenij so placed beside his bed that he can, as it were, jump into themi.. When, the. gong strikes the alarm of fire the horses .trotj.out from jbliejr stalls of their own accord and place, themselves ready to be fastened, to theiengines. i .In Jthe, meantime the men are dressed, and sjide. ,dqwn from' above in' eight seconds ; the operation on the lower floor takes four seconds, and the 'engines are out. , • At the scone of fire the contrivances to secure effective action arc equally surprising I \vill try to describe the ladder- waggon. This carriage is 42 feet long, the wheels being at the extremes ends. It carries a number of hooked ! ladders for various use. But the principal I ladder is a wonder. It is made onthe'telescopic principle, one ladder shooting out of another. It is erected on a turn-table at one end of the carriage, and is raised by a winch Avliich projects the inn or ladder while it is lichijr raised. When the exercise was gone r.hromch for my inspection, J held the superintendent's watch in my hand ; and the ladder was raised and thrown upon a housetop \)0 feet high in 32 seconds. A dozen won wore immediately upon the roof. Then this ladder o,i/n ensily bo thrown to Uir oilier Hide of the Htre <l t, or by moving" the carriage to or from window to window. The oar visv/1 is furnished with largo canvas sacks for lowering down women and children from a buring house, and with various other contrivances for saving life and property, ' i