PAID DEPARTMENT OF GALVESTON TEXAS
The Galveston, Tex., fire department October 1 celebrated its silver jubilee as a paid department. Twenty-five years ago the first company under salary started the excellent department which the city now boasts, and it was but fitting that the occasion should be made much of. With every piece of apparatus glistening in the sunlight, the department was reviewed and inspected at the city hall by members of the city commission. Quite a crowd of citizens had gathered to look on, and they, like the city officials, were loud in their praise of the excellent showing made. A grand ball held at night, the proceeds of which were applied to the widows and orphans’ fund, brought the observance of the day to a close.
Galveston is regarded as having one of the most efficient fire departments for a city of 37,000population in the country, and, like practicaly all fire departments the present efficient force grew from a bucket brigade, established in 1846. The apparatus in the fire department, now in use, represents an outlay of approximately $40,000, which does not include horses. There are eight well-distributed fire stations. Fifteen pieces of apparatus, one of which is the latest, designed automobile fire engine, and seventy trained men compose this department of the city, over which John H. Gernand is chief. Chief Gernand has been in the fire department for more than twenty-five years.
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