C
309
The Daily Press.
HONGKONG, AUGUST 15TH, 1868,
唱
no com-
ANOTHER fire, and still no effective power to extinguish or control it. Fire-engines in plenty, but uo water to supply them. Water in abundance, but no engines to throw it. Hose by the mile, but no one to lay it down. Hands without number, but no head to direct them. Engines, hose, water, men, materials enough for two fire brigades, but an utter want of organisation to render these appli anceseffective. The fire of Thursday night was not extinguished, and was not prevented from spreading by the labors of the so-called Fire Brigade, but by what cannot always, un- fortunately, be calculated on, the direction of the wind and the nature of the buildings in the immediate vicinity of the scene of the fire. Lofty walls, with little or bustible matter about them, stopped the flames before they reached the mass of Chi- nese houses to the Southward or towards the hill. The direction of the wind and the common sense of the inhabitants saved Arick's house from the fire, which, bad it leaped across, would have burnt down the whole block between the Queen's-road and Wellington-street, before the chiefs of the Fire Brigade had quite made up their minds as to what it was best to do under the cir cumstances. The confusion that night was greater, if anything, than on any previous occasion. There were no troops to keep the ground, and the police never made the attempt. They were there under no bead, and without any orders; come to do the best they could, according to their individual lights. At former fires every cagine as it came up went to work where it saw need, and, under the direction of its own people, and with the help of the bystanders, did the best it could. There was no want of willingness to work on the part of any
The difficulty
that there no plan, no union of effort. At the fire on Thursday night, private engines came on the ground, but believing there was a Fire Brigade and a responsible director, simply reported itself and waited for orders--- valueless when they came. The people, from the highest to the lowest, were unwilling to interfere, lest they should be charged with increasing the confusion and with adding to the difficulties of the work. The engines that got into play, especially the earlier ones, simply wasted the water for want of direction where to throw it. One or two of those later on the ground did good service, a French one especially, directed by its own officer and worked by French seamen. Few of the colonial engines on the ground had any responsible person in charge of them to whom orders could he given, and by whom
one.
was
Was
they could be intelligently carried out. There were plenty of Chinamen who pumped most vigorously, and pulled and hauled with a will; but where was the European foreman of each engine and his assistant, and the strong- armed, cool-headed man that ought to have directed the jet? They were nowhere to be found, while balf-a-dozen inspectors and sergeants of police were visible, stanling as quietly in the crowd of on-lookers as if they were the veriest strangers in the town, whose only object there was to satisfy a morbid curiosity.
Assuming, for the sake of argument, that Mr. MAY has not had time to organise his new command as effectually as he could wish, or, in fact, to lick it into shape at all, and that he is open to profit by the ex- periences of the past, there are one or two points to which his attention may be directed with advantage. In the first place, the ground about the scene of the fire must be kept clear of all drones. The workers want all the room, and more. Whether the mili tary are called on to do this duty or the: police may not matter much, but on reflection it seems to be the one thing which the! soldiers are better able to do than anything else. Their discipline is far superior to that of the police, they work better together, and obey orders inore strictly. Their weapons, too, are more fear inspiring and effective. The rush of armed Chinese on Thursday night down d'Aguilar-street was such as astonished those who saw it. The police were powerless to stop it. A line of bayonets would have turned it aside. Besides the
meu actually keeping the ground a small reserve should be under arns to provide for contingencies. European police alone or at most the Chinese and European portion of the fore should attend. The Sibks are utterly helpless, and in their efforts to do something only increase the turmoil and confusion. For all practical purposes they are deaf and dumb, and deaf and dumb men are useless at a fire. A proportion of the engines belonging to the brigade should stand always ready for immediate use, and a sufficient number of men to work one a least of these engines should be on duty dressed, and awake every night, as a tire picket, and be detailed daily in the same way as a military guard. An Inspector of police should be kept on duty nightly to take charge of this engine, and rush with it to the scene of the fire on the first alarm, and when there to take the command absolutely until the arrival of the Superintendent. No en- gine came on the ground on Thursday until twenty minutes or half an hour after the first alarm. When one did arrive the fire was master of the position. In addition to the men, whose duty it is to drag the engine from place to place and to do the actual pumping, and who will always be Chines", these must be a permanent staff to each en- giue, consisting of three European policemen.