New York City’s Fire Peril

New York City’s Fire Peril

The severe snow storm, the worst in many years that has visited the metropolis, has done more than cripple the surface car lines in New York City and render the streets practically impassible in many instances for any kind of vehicle, motor or horse-drawn. It has placed the city in the worst peril of its history from a great conflagration. This is on no less an authority than Chief John Kenlon. And the danger arises not from the fact that the heavy machines of the department cannot get through the drifts, but because the streets are blocked with “dead” trucks, cabs and other vehicles that have become hopelessly stalled in the deep masses of snow. So dangerous has this condition become that the Chief of the New York Fire Department has appealed to business men to keep their motor-trucks and other vehicles off the streets except where absolutely necessary until the blockade is raised by the street cleaning department, which promises to be some days hence. Speaking of this condition, Chief Kenlon said:

“The menace by fire in this city was never so great as it is today. If the merchants and others realized the danger of the loss of life and property, they would voluntarily withdraw all non-essential vehicles, and especially trucks, from the streets until the condition is safer. It is far worse today than it was after the blizzard of 1888, because of the number of wrecked and abandoned cars which form barriers on cross-streets.”