SHANGHAI is justly proud of the efficiency of its volunteer fire brigade, and it is difficult to speak too highly of the devotion of the firemen, whom no considerations of work or weather, of dinner or sleep, prevent from turning out when the ominous bell rings. There is unfortunately, however, at present a general complaint that the bell does not ring as soon as it ought. The three last fires of any magnitude, in Hongkew, on board the steamer Peking and on the French Bund, had been burning, and had been seen by many people, for half an hour or more before the firemen were summoned. Theoretically, the means provided for giving the alarm are amply sufficient. The Settlements are dotted about with fire alarm boxes, and all over them there are houses connected by telephone with the Central Station. "Where are policemen always walking about day and night, with instructions to give the alan directly they hear or are informed of a fire. It does not seem at first sight as if more could be done than this to apprise the Central Police Station directly a fire breaks out but practically these precautions do not meet all the necessities of the case. In the case of the Hongkew fire, the people whose houses were threatened were so occupied in looking after the safety of their own property that they forgot to give the alarm; and similarly the crew of the Peking were intent on putting out the fire, and could not spare the time to summon assistance. The recent: fire in the godown on the French bund broke out in the centre, some 100 or 150 feet from the bund, and no one on shore apparently saw it, until it actually burst through the roof. In London it used to be the custom— and perhaps still is—to give a swell reward to the first who brought news of a fire to the station; but the drawback to this was that cases occurred in which tramps actually set fire to houses for the sake of earning this reward. There is one other precaution adopted here, and that is the sending of a max every half hour to the top of the bell towers to look round and see if, there are any signs of a fire. This is open to the same objection as with the police on their beats; the fire may break out just after the policeman has passed the house, or the watchman has come down from the bell tower. It is a maxim among firemen that the first ten minutes are worth all the rest 50 lange now and the buildings so closely of the time; and Shanghai is getting
packed, that it has become of the greatest importance that the alarm should be given as soon as_possible after the fire breaks out. The plan adopted in American cities is to have watchmen stationed permanently on the bell towers, keeping a look out all the time, and this plan will have to be adopted here, and has, we believe, already been suggested by the chief engineer to the municipal authorities. With a kind of pilot house with windows all round, built for them on the top of the tower, the watchmen could keep alternate six hour watches comfortably enough; and the addition this would make to the security of the Settlements would be well worth the expense,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.