The Chemical Engine at Utica, N. Y.
From a record kept by Chief Engineer Dimblely, of the Utica (N. Y.) Fire Department, the following statistics showing the duties performed by the chemical engine are abstracted:
“In 1888 the total loss from 69 fires was $44,402 on property insured for $331,255. Of these fires 14 were extinguished by the chemical alone. The damage done by them on a property insured for $37,600 was only $2,548.28. In 1888 the chemical engine worked at twenty-nine fires. The figures given show that the average loss during 1888 by fires extinguished by the chemical was about $180, and the average loss by fires put out by water was about $840. It is impossible to estimate what part of the damage was caused by water, but it is safe to say that it amounts to 75 per cent of the total. The loss in comparison with the insurance from fires put out by water was not far from one-fifth, while from fires put out by the chemical it was only one-seventeenth.
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