NEAFC 32nd Annual Conference.pdf - New England Association of ...

NEW ENGLAND ASSOCIATION OF FIRE CHIEFS
would keep the people back. They will still come through the back corner.s,
and make quite an area for us to police.
CHirr Krrrr: We did have the problem that this question refers to.
This was our solution to it. Two police cars are dispatched to every fire, and
in the police cars there are two signs, that say, "Fire Line--Fire Zone," and
the Police Department has gone along with us, and they have roped off the
area, within 1,000 feet of a fire.
By the same token, the municipal government went along and made an
ordinance to follow it up. So that with the ordinance, plus the cooperation
of the Police Department, it has cut the nuisance down to where we are
not bothered too much by curiosity seekers, now.
MODrRATO~ WOOLLrY: I think that you will agree that we are getting
som’e concrete suggestions. I think that we will all agree it is a problem. But,
let us see if we can, like Chief Kee£e, come up with how you would handle it.
CHIrF Fv.Y~: We have found that the larger the_ fire, the easier it is
to handle the crowd. Our problem is with the small, neighborhood fire, and,
when the police arrive there, in response to either radio calls or the knowledge
of an alarm, unless they are properly trained, you can classify them as curiosity
seekers, too, because they join in with the crowd, and they are like anybody
else. With the small fire, we have the problem of the children, too; the children
are very troublesome, because they want ~to get as. close as they can to
the scene of the fire, and also, if possible, climb all over the apparatus, and
handle or mis-handle whatever they can get their hands on.
We find that it is necessary for one or two of our men to handle that
situation themselves, and take care of the apparatus, and we can’t depend entirely
on the police in a small neighborhood fire.
[But, with the larger fires, they establish the lines, and we do get. good
results, in that case.
CHIEF 2~iLLETAG: In my town, each company has fire police, and they
do a pretty good job. We rope off the area in a large fire; in a smaller fire,
o£ course, we don’t bother. The only trouble is that the fire police are not
uniformed, and nobody takes much stock in the fire police, although everybody
seems to be very agreeable, and we ask them to go back far enough from
the fire so that the men won’t be hampered in putting out the fire.
We have, in my town, a limited number of policemen; therefore, .we
cannot depend upon the police department too much.
I want to see if there is any man here who wouldn’t like to go runniqg
to a fire and watch it, himself. When I am in Providence, I hope that Chief
Marshall won’t run me off th e sidewalk, because I will be watching the fire!
CHirr DAtum: We have the condition in our town where we have a
Fire Constable, who goes along with us in the town. We have a lot of trouble
with different cars, racing to the fire. However, during the last month or
two, the police have been bearing down, and we have had very good cooperation
with the Police Department. :
MODrg~TOR WOOLL~.~: I was going to call upon the man who wrote the
question. Is -he here?
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