In our issue of the 13th January last we called attention to a system of fice engines introduced and maintained in Yokohama by Mr. Hegt, a gentleman who, we believe, is well known to many here, and who has had long and varied nonce as a fireman in many countries. The catastrophe on Wednesday night seems a fitting opportunity for returning to the subject, not by any means with a desire to disparage the praiseworthy and effectual exertions of the Fire Brigade, but to point out a way in which their efforts may be very materially assisted by the public thomselves. 'The following extract from a work entitled 'Fires, Fire Engines and Fire Brigades' will best illustrate our meaning:—'A pailfal of water applied on the discovery of the fire at its curliest stage would nearly always canguer it; but if not done at once, tons will be required to do what might have been done by pounds, Could any arrangement insure the application of water to a fire of the usual description within five minutes of its commence-mout, the progress of two-thirds of them would be effectually resisted; for a little water, even a pint, at that moment is everything." The fire on Wednesday, supposing it to have oriminated in the manner in which it is alleged to have done, was a cage in point, A woman was frying or broiling some food, when the fat employed for the purpose blazed up and sot fire to some tea-chests. What could have been easier, had she possessed a little presence of mind, than to have taken a bucket of water and extinguished the flames at once? This of course was the last thing thought of, and consequently, whilst the alarm was being given, the bells being tolled, and the Fire Brigade turning out, one house was destroyed and the fate of another hopelessly sealed.
It is in this way that Mr. Hogt's hand engines are of invaluable assistance. They are light and portable and can be as quickly ran along as jinrickshas, and easily worked by two men whilst third holds the branch. They have no suotiouhose, and can be fed from a very small body of water. To quote Mr. Hogt's words from a recent issue of the Japan Gazette, "if a fow tubs are kept filled with water in different parte of the settlement, and every dozen of households join together for mutual protection, mon being held in readiness to carry water, large fires, so disastrous to the country, can always be prevented." Here again is a lesson to be learnt. If one of these hand engines had been kept, say, by the occupants of the ill-fated Japanese hotel, they might have got it to work in less than five minutes from the time of the woman setting fire to the tea-chests the community would not have been once more aroused from its wonted equanimity by the sound of the fire-bell; there would have been no occasion for the Brigade to turn out, the calamity would have been averted at the outset, and upwards of a dozen families would not have been homeless to-day. But here in Shanghai most people expect their work to be done for
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.