Chief Bonner on the Electric Wires.

Chief Bonner on the Electric Wires.

Nobody is happier than the firemen over the taking down of the electric wires in New York and of all the other wires, too, for that matter, although the electric wires were the ones that they chiefly dreaded. Chief Bonner, talking to a New York Sun reporter about this the other day, said :

“It would be hard to measure the good that will be done to the department by the removal of the wires from the streets. There hasn't been any fire yet since the wires have come down to illustrate it, but when there is a blaze in some of the big down-town warehouses it will surprise folks to see how handily the firemen will get at it compared with what they have been doing. The fact is that for a long time our ladders have been of scarcely any use to us in parts of the city where there were wires. We simply couldn’t use them at all. Even if we did finally get them up it wasn't safe to climb them, for nobody could tell whether they were in contact with dangerous wires. Besides making our ladders available, the removal of the wires will improve the work of the men themselves. It makes no difference how brave a fireman is, he hesitates when it comes to fooling around among those wires. You see, in the first place, it’s a hidden danger, and that’s the worst kind for a man to have to face, and it's a danger against which no care of himself or his comrades can guard. But besides that the firemen have always looked on the electric wires as a danger that had no business to exist. They have felt that it was imposing on their good nature to ask them to run any such risk in addition to the regular ones of the business. They are paid, you know', to fight fire, not electricity. I don’t think anyone can charge that the firemen have ever failed to do their duty because the wires were in the way, but at the same time the removal of the wires will improve the morale of the men, and will make one less thing for them to worry about when they are fighting a fire."