NEW YORK FIREMEN.

Waikato Times, Volume 101, Issue 16896, 9 September 1926, Page 5

NEW YORK FIREMEN.

UNDERGO STIFF TEST. COURSE FOR VETERANS, To become a New York firemen a stiff civil service examination must be passed, and the candidate must then wait until his name is reached on the list. Then lie is pul. on probation for llirec months. There are approximately seventy men at all times in this probationary class, who, when they are not. receiving instruction, are attached to various engine houses; hut there is never more than one recruit at a fire, which minimizes the chances of ignorance or awkwardness causing serious mistakes. Then, 100, at. every lire there is a fire chief, as well as the captain of eacli company, which insures proper direction of action. During the probationary period thirty days arc partly devoted to school or instruction. Classes are held twice daily in Hie courtyard of the old fire headquarters in Sixtyseventh Street near . Third Avenue. Following the thirty-day instruction period Ihe probationers must, spend sixty days more in active engine bouse duly before they arc finally appointed to Ihe department. The desire to he firemen evidently Is a sincere one, for a “rookie” has practically never been known to change bis mind during the probationary period. And apparently the desire fosters the achievement, for very few fail to be graduated into the department. What the Rookie Learns. The rookies, under Thomas Larkin, head instructor of the New York Fire Department, wind up their thirty days’ probation. Flanking the courtyard ihere. arc usually many onlookers, and oilier people peering from windows in ihe neighbourhood, and. of course, small boys gathered in large numbers “for to admire rmd for to see,” and to drearn of I lie days when they will be big enough lo straddle window sills and slide along lodges or mount ladders lo rescue flame-trapped victims. “When they first come here,” says Chief Larkin, “they know nothing at all. Why, they can't even connect two lengths.of hose I” But the rookies master their job. They become familiar with all the tools and fittings used in the department—chemical ianks, the Life-gun which shoots a line to the roof when the only means of escape is by sliding down a rope. They arc highly proficient at lowering each other from windows, holding and jumping into the life nets, quickly applying life belts, and climbing ladders or building a chain of scaling ladders to a roof.

They run up and down fire escapes with the agility of squirrels on trees; apply hose and nozzles with the utmost economy of niolion and celerity; hoist a tliirly-five-foot gadder to a roof Seven ilighls high, and lower it again to the yards. At one moment flic yard is still, with a number of lengths of hose and tools in the inconspieuou.s offing and a group .of men listening, quiet and alert lo Ihe instructor. Before the last word of direction is spoken they know every move they are to make, every act they arc to perform. Then llic yard becomes' a different place. Men arc everywhere—but everywhere in their places. Lines, liosc, ladders, nets, life belts arc seized or erected or attached. Only the actual flames are absent. Windows till with oilier firemen—“rescues” to be. accomplished with facility. And almost as quickly as it was done, again it is quiet. Then comes more instruction and again the yard is the scene of swarming activities while the instructor holds a stop watch. They hardly make a clumsy move. In connecting hose or nozzles, or stretching lines, or using tools it is fascinating to watch their hands. Each finger seems to give individual assistance, resulting in swiftness and sureness almost incredible. Veterans Still Train. In addition to training rookies all Ihe year around, in Ihe Spring and Fall classes are hold daily for veteran firemen, so that every few years each man in the fire department takes a post-graduate course and goes through all the evolutions of the rookies’ school. The record time for going through a long list of ladder-raisings, stretching lines from high pressure hydrants lo water towers, ladder climbing, rope throwing, bringing in the hook and ladder, erecting the ladder, operating lines through windows, fastening knots, and all the innumerable oilier actions that may have to be performed in a fireman's work, is seventeen minutes and eleven seconds. It, is a thrilling moment when the hook and ladder comes dashing into ttic courtyard. As the first tall ladder swings aloft it almost seems as though the building wavers. In the firemen’s eyes is that iiilen’, lock one notices as they whirl past in a crowned city street. Their voices are low, Hie directions given tensely to the point. And even as one begins to feel accustomed to seeing men at alt parts of a fire escape—leaning from windows, perched dangerously on roofs — it is all over again and the hook and ladder on its way back lo the engine liuuse.