NEW BEDFORD A SAFE TOWN.

NEW BEDFORD A SAFE TOWN.

Chief Macy, of the fire department of New Bedford, is rapidly approaching his silver anniversary and has issued his twenty-third annual report, which is chiefly remarkable from the fact that although there was an unusual number of fires during l899, yet they were so well handled by the firemen that very few of them were of any great magnitude, while the loss was the smallest of any year since 1894. This fact testifies to the truth of Chief Macy’s statement, that the members of the fire department were prompt in responding to alarms and "performed all their duties in an intelligent manner"—thereby, of course, following the exumple set by their chief. The loss by fire for the year ending December 31, 1899. was $40,718.40. of which one-half was caused by two fires, at one of which—some icehouses—the department was powerless as there was no water in the vicinity; amount of insurance, $219,575; number of bell alarms, eighty-one; number of still and telephone alarms, eighty-eight—total alarms. 169.

有221个部门的成员,其中forty-five are permanently employed—the remainder being callmen. The water supply is greatly improved under the new system, as now there is not only a heavy pressure along the water front where the mills are situated, but a good fire pressure on the high land among the residences where formerly there was none, and the department had to depend entirely upon engines. Chief Macy recommends that the fire alarm system be improved by the installation of a new ten-circuit repeater, which, with the recently adopted storage battery system, will make the office part of the system up-to-date inevery particular. It is hoped that several thousand feet of overhead wire will be laid in underground ducts during the present year. Chief Macy also hopes to supersede the old-fashioned street fire alarm boxes by the latest improved non-interfering boxes as quickly as possible. This can be done by changing a few each year. The protective department had a good deal to do in 1899, as so many of the fires were in d wellinghouses, and so much furniture had to be covered.