The "latest thing" in motor fire engines is one which carries a fire-escape with it, in addition to water-flinging machinery. An engine of this type is to be found in some of the London suburbs. A chemical cylinder lies under the driver's seat, where it is well out of the way, and coiled beside it is its reel of hose. The "escape" rests on the top of the vehicle, the wheels hanging over the rear end, while the top projects some distance in front of the steering wheels. The ladder, of telescopic design, can be extended to fifty feet as soon as it has been lowered to the ground. Since the saving of life is even more important than the saving of property, it is very desirable that a means of escape should be at hand at the earliest possible moment after an outbreak. This combination apparatus enables the brigade to nip a fire in the bud, if it is still a comparatively small affair, and also to rescue any people whose exit may have been cut off by the fire having started on or near the staircases.
The Wolseley Motor-Car Company has established a type of chemical motor fire engine which promises to be very successful. A 20 h.p. motor is placed forward under the frame to keep the centre of gravity low. When fully laden, it carries a crew of eight men, two 9-foot ladders, two portable chemical extinguishers, a 50-gallon chemical cylinder, and a reel on which is wound a hose fifty-three yards long. The wheels are a combination of the wooden "artillery" and the wire "spider," wires being strung from the outer end of the hub to the outer ends of the wooden spokes to give them increased power to resist the strain of sudden turns or collisions. An artillery wheel, not thus reinforced, is apt to buckle sideways and snap its spokes when twisted at all.
England has always led the way in matters relating to fire extinction, and to her is due the credit of first harnessing mechanical motive power to the fire engine. Other countries are following her example, and consequently we find fire apparatus moved by the petrol motor in places so far apart as Cape Town, Valparaiso, Mauritius, Sydney, Berlin, New York, Montreal. There can be no doubt but that in a very few years horse-traction will be abandoned by the brigades of our large towns. It has been suggested that the fire-pump of the future will be driven by electricity drawn from switches on the street mains; enough current being stored in accumulators to move the pump from station to fire. In such a case it would be possible to use very powerful pumps, as an electric motor is extremely vigorous for its size and weight. Even to-day steam fire engines can fling 2,000 gallons per minute, and fire floats (for use on the water) considerably more. Possibly the engine of to-morrow will pour 5,000 gallons a minute on the flames if it can get that amount from the water mains, and so render it unnecessary to summon in a large number of engines to quell a big conflagration. Three hundred thousand gallons an hour ought to check a very considerable "blaze."