Fire Escapes.
All large cities are greatly exposed to the terrible calamity of loss of life by fire in consequence of the many tall buildings with which they abound. In this city there are tenement houses and great manufactories, wherein hundreds of persons live or are employed, rising to the height of six or eight stories, and far beyond the reach of ordinaryladders. St. Louis alone seems to have profited by the frightful disasters that occurred at the Brooklyn Theatre and the Southern Hotel in St. Louis. There a “ Pompier Corps" has been organized as a life-saving company, which operates by means of short scaling-ladders, which can be thrown up readily from one story' to another, affording a ready means for the men to ascend to the relief of persons in peril. the long canvas bags, similar to those so i successfully used in London, by means of which imperiled persons are shot down to the ground without injury. In the JOURNAL of last week we gave a very interesting account of the St. Louis “ Pompier Corps.”
In New York there should be a life-saving corps organized within the I* ire Department, j but operated entirely distinct from the fire 1 apparatus. It should be provided with the j best apparatus devised for saving life, and be present at everyfire for the sole purpose of rescuing persons whose lives are in danger, j It no lives are imperiled, their services might j be employed in working the fire apparatus, j At present, the Fire Department has no lifeby the I look 3ncl Lciclclcr Companies. I here by the Hook and Ladder Companies, are many buildings in the city whose upper stories cannot be reached by any ladder in the Department. Other means of communicating with persons on the upper floors in case of fire should be devised and put in service without delay. The numerous tenement houses in the city, and the apartment and French fiat houses, offer most tempting inducements for a “holocaust,” and some day we shall have it, paying for our neglect in providing life-saving apparatus the penalty of many lives.
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