FIRE FIGHTING

Southland Times, Issue 19757, 3 February 1923, Page 8

FIRE FIGHTING

THE INVERCARGILL BRIGADE. SUPT. HAMILTON’S REMINISCENCES. After having been for sixteen years the Superintendent of the Invercargill Volunteer Tire Brigade, Mr W. Hamilton retired on January 30, when the position he held so long was filled by Mr Simpson, who resigned as first lieutenant of the-Wel-lington Fire Brigade to take charge in Invercargill. Mr Hamilton joined the Invercargill Volunteer Fire Brigade as a fireman on November 5, 1895, and has thus completed 27 years and two months of continuous service with the Municipal fire-fighting forces. For the past 15 years of this time he has been Superintendent of the Brigade. When he joined the Brigade the late Captain Hall was Superintendent, and when Captain Hall died Captain Miller took the vacant position. Mr Miller was also Foreman of Works for the Borough, and he held the position as chief of the Fire Brigade for a very short time. He had to resign from the Brigade as it was impossible for him to carry out the duties associated with both the foremanship of works and superintendency of the Fire Brigade. When the Borough Foreman therefore resigned Mr Hamilton, who was his first lieutenant, succeeded to the position, becoming Superintendent. He has held this position continuously since 1907. Mr Hamilton recollected the days when the Brigade was housed in the old station situated on Don street, where the Invercargill Club now stands. There were manual fire engines there. The Brigade had two of them, one called Bluejacket, which was afterwards sold to Gore, and the other named Royal, a gift to the town from the Royal Insurance Company, and afterwards disposed of to the Government. The water was provided by wells. There was one in Kelvin street, one or two in Tay street, and some in Dee street. The Royal engine was worked by 30 men, 15 on each side. They were paid 2/6 an hour and an official went round taking their names. Often the onlookers would put a hand to the pump while the man took the names, and then would stop after being sure of their half-crown.

One of the early captains of the Brigade was a Mr Jones, who was of a mechanical turn of mind, and invented several ingenious contrivances to speed up the service and facilitate the working of the steam engine that was used in his time. He had an arrangement which, when worked on an alarm being given, automatically opened the doors and sent the engine moving down an incline, through the opened doors and out on the street. At the same time a pilot light set the contents of a bottle of kerosene alight under the furnace, thus enabling steam to be got up with a minimum of time. The station was shifted to Tay street, in the old Immigration Barracks, where the Town Hall is now situated.

That was 38 or 40 years ago, and the Brigade then had no horse of its own. When the firebell rang the owner of the first horse to get along to the station received a sum of money for its hire, and consequently competiton was always keen, horses being raced to the brigade headquarters when the alarm was rung. On one Mr Hamilton relates, a horse was being galloped up to the station and the old carriage was being pushed out. One of the shafts pierced the horse’s side and killed it. Compensation was claimed from the Corporation, -but the owners of the dead animal were unsuccessful in their action. On another day a horse was rushed up and harnessed. It galloped, away down the street and then the carriage was observed to suddenly stop. Inquiry elicited the fact that the poor animal was dead, and the men of the Brigade could be seen standing dejectedly round the dead horse lying between the shafts on the road. After those two incidents horses did not appear to be offered too freely, and the Brigade consequently had to get a horse of its own.

Just after the South African war permission was obtained from the Mayor, Mr Goldie, to hold a fireworks display. Somebody left a light in the room where 150 rockets were stored, and they exploded, causing a fire and the complete destruction of the barracks. After that, when any of the Invercargill Brigade went north, they were the bytt of the joke “InvercargiH——oh yes, the Brigade that burned its station down.” To this the retort courteous was always “Pardon me, the station was not burned down. It was blown up.” In the days of the manual engines and the wells in the streets there were some big fires. Wesney’s block and Maclnerny’s were perhaps the largest. The conflagration at Wesney’s broke out one Sunday morning as the church bells were ringing, and as the buildings were all continuous the blaze soon spread through the whole block. The street wells were soon exhausted in fighting big fires like that. In the neighbourhood of Puni Creek water was often pumped from the stream. In those days a favourite false alarm call was to Blowdon’s fish smokery on Dee street. Passers-by would notice dense volumes of smoke and give the alarm. The old Fire Brigade horse was familiar with the route from the station to Blowdon’s, and knew just where to stop. After the barracks were burned down the Brigade kept its plant for a time in the cook-shop of the barracks. About 22 or 23 years ago, just after the milk factory started at Underwood, the Brigade shifted into the present Fire. Station on Esk street. It was then a new building planned by Mr Sharpe, who was then the Town Engineer, and constructed by Carruthers.

Mr Hamilton considered the Crescent fire was the biggest of recent times. The Brigade had no chance right from the beginning. Woods’ fire was also a bad one. A man burned there and the girl recently suffocated were the only fatalities he had encountered. He had gone into the room where the girl was found, and it was as black as a tar bucket, full of dense and heavy smoke. The girl had none of her daytime clothes on, and a big bruise on her temple indicated that she had fallen against something and had been knocked senseless before the Brigade arrived.

At Woods garage the fatality was a sad one. The man who died in that fire had been terribly burned. .

During the 27 years since Mr Hamilton joined, the Invercargill Fire Brigade has answered a total of 1505 calls, an average' of 55 a year. The largest number during any one year was 106 in 1915, with 1914 a good second, having two a,«rms less. From 1896 to the dawn of the present century there were 32 or 33 a year, and 46 calls marked the biggest year in the first decade of the twentieth century. There were 69 last year, and 70 or 80 have been common since the war.

During his term as Superintendent, Mr Hamilton has made 100 presentations, including service honours, wedding gifts tokens to members leaving the Brigade’ and presents to different people for kindnesses shown.

Mr Hamilton considered that the Esk Street Fire Station was nearing the limit of its suitability. At the present time, he said it was getting too small to meet the needs of improved fire-fighting conditions.