FIRE DEPARTMENT OF DAYTON.

FIRE DEPARTMENT OF DAYTON.

首席丹尼尔·c·拉金在代顿,俄亥俄州, has a thoroughly up-to-date head of its fire department, whose eighteenth annual report is a model of perspicuity and exactness. The total number of alarms answered during the year was 304—thirtyfour in excess of the previous year; the loss on buildings, $18,397; on contents, $43,037.73—total loss, $61,435.49. The value of buildings in which fires occurred was $890,870, of contents, $545,000—total at risk, $1,475,870; insurance on buildings at risk, $363,375 ; on contents, $260,817—total, $624,142; loss on buildings, $18,397.76, on contents. $43,037.73—total. $61,435.49—total insurance loss paid, $44,636.49; loss on which there was no insurance— buildings, $530; contents, $16,269—total, $16,799. The aggregate insurance during eighteen years was $7,832,280; loss, $877,437 92; number of fires, 3 151. The running expenses of the department for the year were $4,860.56; salaries $57,368.53—total, $05,329.39 —$4,947.90 less than in the previous year. A new deck-stand water tower and chemical engine and new improvements cost $3 100.30. Six fires were caused by electric wires and two by electricity; one by a Christmas tree; seven from spontaneous combu8tion;and thirty-three from unknown causes. The personnel of the department consists of seventy-six men, as follows: Chief; assistant chiefs, two; captains, five; engineers, two; stokers, two; drivers, eighteen; pipeinen, twenty-five; ladder men, twelve; substitutes three; callmen, six. The apparatus is as follows: Four steam fire engines; thirteen hose wagons; one Hayes extension ladder; two two-horse trucks; threechemical engines; two telegraph wagons; three buggies—of which one hose wagon, tw o steam fire engines, one two-horse hook and ladder truck, and one chemical engine are held in reserve. Two fire alarm boxes were added to the fire alarm telegraph system, but Chief Larkin insists that fifty more should be added, of which twenty-five are absolutely necessary. He also recommends the purchase of an eighty-five-foot aerial hook and ladder truck. The repairs, alterations, and imDrovementsin the department are all done by members, whereby a great saving is effected to the city.

At Nashville, Tenn., the five story frame warehouse of B. S. Rhea & Son. on the river front, was destroyed by a night fire. Five loaded Louisville and Nashville freight cars were also burned, and two of the spans of the Louisville and Nashville bridge over the Cumberland river were seriously damaged. The greater por'ion of the warehouse’s contents was nitrate of soda, and as the burning combustible flowed in streams to the river, it exploded with a continuous roar, sounding like a bombardment. Loss, $75,000.