Short Cuts and Gadgets
MADDOX BELIEVES IN SIGNS
One of our ubiquitous contributors, Frank Maddox, who is Fire Chief at the Veterans Hospital, Walla Walla, Wash., has an offering which might find use in other fire forces, and which he describes herein (see also accompanying picture). He writes:
For a number of years at this hospital there has been a real need for portable traffic stands and signs to serve as warning signals for unexpected emergencies. Insufficient funds and red tape made it impossible to purchase stands and make signs for every occasion. Therefore, it became necessary for the Chief of the Protective unit to devise some method to care for this problem.
Discarded sheet metal, 1 in. and 11/2 in. black iron pipe, and disks from disk plows were used for this project. Thirty inches of 11/2 in. black iron pipe was welded on top of the disk, which is about 22 in. diameter. A frame 181/2 x 21/2 in. ID was made from 1 in. black iron pipe and welded on top of the 30 in. 11/2 in. pipe. Holes were drilled on top side for eye-bolts to which the sign will hang.
Inside the metal frame, a portable metal sign will hang from eye-bolts which will allow the sign to swing to offset any wind resistance on the stand. Lettering may be used on both sides of the sign, if so desired. The signs are interchangeable, depending upon the situation for which they are desired.
The above type of stands and signs are now being used for traffic control at the Veterans Hospital, Walla Walla. Wash. Their use has resulted in an approximate saving of $15 for each stand.
KEY TO FIRE LOSSES IN CARD FILE
The above heading of an interesting news story about an idea adopted by the Stockton, Calif., Fire Department, contributed by Arthur E. Buss, Chairman Fire Prevention Committee, Escalon, Calif., Volunteer Fire Department is worth passing on to the fied.
More than 400 local business firms and commercial establishments are members of the Stockton Fire Department “key system,” as it is called. The key system is designed to cut down secondary losses at fires which are sometimes even greater than the fire damage itself.
Every fireman knows how often he is called on an alarm that amounts to nothing more than a smoke scare from a trivial fire. If his men have to force their way through an expensive front door of tempered plate glass, for example, the resulting damage may conceivably be much greater than the minor loss from the smoke and fire itself.
The key system, according to Stockton’s Fire Chief Lyle Stevenson, is a simple but effective way of gaining entrance to a building, yet every precaution is taken to protect the person or business that turns over a key to the department. Despite the fast, simple method firemen have of gaining entrance to a building, an elaborate system of protecting business operators against misuse of their keys is followed.
The keys are carried on the piece of apparatus that is first due at the scene of a fire. They are in sealed containers and the keys are also sealed onto a rod in the carrying compartment. If one is needed, the officer in charge of the first company to arrive first requests the fire alarm station for the number corresponding to the address. This is given him by radio, and the officer cuts the seal in the compartment. He then determines which pocket of 20 keys he wants and removes them from the rod by cmting the second seal, It is then a simple proccss to determine the correct key through the number given by the fire alarm office.
In the event a packet of keys should fall into the hands of somebody trying to appropriate them for unlawful purposes, they would be valueless since each key carries only a number. It is necessary to go through the fire alarm office to determine the address for which it corresponds, the Chief points out.
After a key is used, it is again placed on a closed steel ring, returned to its proper place with a special fire department seal, and the compartment itself again sealed.
Chief officers are the only fire department personnel who have access to the special sealing equipment. Each company officer is required to inspect the sealed compartment at the start of his tour of duty and make a report on his daily record sheet.
The Chief points out that the system is very efficient, especially during the night or on Sundays and holidays. The card that carries a key number also lists, in order, executive personnel who are to be notified in an emergency.
An unusual use of the system occurred when a Main street clothing store operator lost the key to his establishment. He was able to enter his store with the fire department key, after fully identifying himself to the authorities. “I don’t know what greater precautions can be taken to protect the property of persons who turn over a key to us,” said Chief Stevenson. “No single individual could appropriate a key for an illegal use. If one was taken it would only be a short time before it would be reported.”
Firms desiring to join in the department’s key system file a request with the Centyal Fire Alarm Station. A chief officer or member of the fire prevention bureau picks up the key. Fire alarms are broadcast to all fire stations over the amplifiers something like this: “Attention all companies; there is a fire at 000 E. Main.” The fire alarm operator then turns to a little card file on his desk, draws out a card for “000 E. Main” and in a matter of seconds the fire fighters are in the building, without having to use an axe or battering ram or other forcible entry tool.
-TOM MAGNEE.
