APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES. 



613 



to be attached to a house and pulled by a crowd of men until the 

 house collapsed. Probably a hook of this nature was never used. 

 The firemen of to-day extinguish a fire instead of being content 

 to stop it within certain boundaries, unless an extensive confla- 

 gration renders it necessary to raze buildings by dynamite. The 

 hooks of to-day are used to cut through into a hidden fire, and for 

 other purposes of like nature. 



The pompier or scaling ladder is a most necessary article, and 

 is used in connection with the distinct pompier service. Christ 

 Hoell, of St. Louis, who had served in European pompier com- 

 panies, believed that the system could be advantageously intro- 

 duced into this country. In 1877 he formed a volunteer company 

 in St. Louis, and drilled the men in 

 the use of the apparatus connected 

 with the system. The members of 

 the city government were so pleased 

 with the exhibition given by this 

 volunteer company that the system 

 was introduced into the fire depart- 

 ment, under Chief Engineer Sex- 

 ton, in December of the same year. 

 Since then the pompier service has 

 found its way into all large depart- 

 ments, and many cities support 

 training schools that every fireman 

 may be thoroughly drilled. The 

 pompier ladder is made of one pole, 

 from twelve to eighteen feet long, 

 provided with cross-rungs. At one 

 end an iron hook projects at right 

 angles from two to three feet. By the aid of this ladder one man 

 can scale the side of a building by putting the hook over a win- 

 dow-sill above, climbing the ladder, and repeating the operation. 

 If flames are coming from the window directly above, the window 

 at the side is used, and the fireman has to swing into position 

 by the aid of his ladder. Two men with two ladders can climb 

 together much more speedily, as they take turns in steadying each 

 other's ladders. The pompier fireman wears a belt, in the front 

 of which is a snap-hook. He also carries a hatchet and a coil of 

 rope one hundred feet long. By fastening the rope to some con- 

 venient point, and taking two turns round the snap-hook, he can 

 descend rapidly and safely. If carrying a person with him, an- 

 other turn of rope is taken round the hook. A long canvas chute 

 is sometimes carried, through which inmates of a burning build- 

 ing can slide to the ground. 



The "grip-sack," or what is more generally called the life net,. 



s=^^%- k: 



Fig. 21. Aerial Truck. 



