伦敦消防梯人。
以下是发生在伦敦消防逃生服务部门的一起事故:
“早晨两点钟，一所住着十一个人的房子里发生了火灾，他们都睡在楼上。直到大火完全蔓延到房子的下部，切断了人们从通常的出口撤退的机会，人们才发现了大火。几分钟后，他们都被唤醒了，然后，两组焦急的人——三个人在一间屋子里，八个人在另一间屋子里——在街道的高处凄惨地呼救。从来没有比这更迫切需要帮助的了，因为火焰已经蹿上了楼梯，把他们困在了已经令人窒息的房间里。旁观者告诉他们，逃生梯就要来了，并请求他们不要跳下去。幸运的是，那个逃生梯。事实上，他们被召唤到另一场火灾中，就在眼前了，否则他们获救的机会就微乎其微了。逃出去的人一到，列车员就得马上决定先把梯子架到哪个房间去。他根据风吹着火焰的方向判断，再过一两分钟，他就够不到那三个人正聚在一起的窗口了。因此，他不失时机地把它们弄下来，把它们穿过逃跑用的帆布枪。 Though this operation was most speedily, although coolly performed, the situation of the other eight persons (women and children being among them) was getting desperate in the extreme, as the flames were beginning to enter the room, and the smoke was stifling them. Moments seemed now like hours to them, and nothing but the cheery cry of the escape conductor that he would get them all down in time, and the sight of his energetic efforts in their behalf, gave them confidence to wait, and prevented them from leaping down on the pavement; it was with difficulty that a mother was restrained from throwing out her little child. The conductor was, of course, compelled to shift his escape to the other window; but when this was done, it was not many seconds before he had passed all the persons in the burning room down the canvas shoot, singly—the last was the master of the house. The flames followed them up close, and poured out of the window through which they had just made their exit, before the conductor could move his ladder away from it; indeed, the escape was partially burnt. The room from which he had first rescued the three persons was by this time full of fire ; and if the conductor had not shown such cool judgment in his selection of the group to be first assisted, loss of life would almost certainly have been the result. These few details will show that intelligence, no less than daring and activity, is a necessary clement in the character of a good fire-escape conductor.”
