Page:Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham.djvu/87

Rh £10,000 damage; first time steam fire engine was used.—At Baker Bros'., match manufactory, Freeth Street, February 11.—At Grew's and at Cund's printers, March 16, 1878; both places being set on fire by a vengeful thief; £2,000 joint damage.—At corner of Bow Street, July 29, 1878.—At Dennison's shop, opposite Museum Concert Hall. August 26, 1878, when Mrs. Dennison, her baby, her sister, and a servant girl lost their lives. The inquest terminated on September 30 (or rather at one o'clock next morning), when a verdict of "accidental death" was given in the case of the infant, who had been dropped during an attempted rescue, and with respect to the others that they had died from suffocation caused by a fire designedly lighted, but by whom the jury had not sufficient evidence to say. Great fault was found with the management of the fire brigade, a conflict of authority between them and the police giving rise to very unpleasant feelings. At Cadbury's cocoa manufactory, November 23, 1878. In Legge Street, at a gun implement maker's, December 14, 1878; £600 damage.—And same day at a gun maker's, Whittall Street; £300 damage.—At Hawkes's looking-glass manufactory, Bromsgrove Street, January 8, 1879; £20,000 damage.—The Reference Library, January 11, 1879 (a most rueful day); damage incalculable and irreparable.—At Hinks and Sons' lamp works, January 30, 1879; £15,000 damage.—At the Small Arms Factory, Adderley Road, November 11, 1879: a fireman injured.—At Grimsell and Sons', Tower Street, May 5, 18^0; over £5,000 damage.—Ward's cabinet manufactory, Bissell Street, April 11, 1885.

Firearms.—See "Trades."

Fire Brigades.—A volunteer brigade, to help at fires, was organised here in February 1836, but as the several companies, after introducing their engines, found it best to pay a regular staff to work them, the volunteers, for the time, went to the "rightabout."

In 1863 a more pretentious attempt to constitute a public or volunteer brigade of firemen, was made, the members assembling for duty on the 21st of February, the Norwich Union engine house being the headquarters; but the novelty wore off as the uniforms got shabby, and the work was left to the old hands, until the Corporation took the matter in hand.

A Volunteer Fire Brigade for Aston was formed at the close of 1878, and its rules approved by the Local Board on Jan. 7, 1879. They attended and did good service at the burning of the Reference Library on the following Saturday. August 23, 1879 the Aston boys, with three and twenty other brigades from various parts of the country, held a kind of efficiency competition at the Lower Ground.^, and being something new in it attracted many. The Birmingham brigade were kept at home, possibly on account of the anniversary of the Digbeth fire. Balsall Heath and Harborne are also supplied with their own brigades, and an Association of Midland Brigades has lately been formed which held their first drill in the Priory. April 28, 1883.

Fire Engines.—In 1839 the Birmingham Fire Office had two engines, very handsome specimens of the article too, being profusely decorated with wooden battle axes, iron scroll-work, &c. One of these engines was painted in many colours; but the other a plain drab, the latter it was laughingly said, being kept for the Society of Friends, the former for society at large. The first time a "portable" or hand engine was used here was on the occurrence of a fire in a tobacconist's shop in Cheapside Oct. 29, 1850. The steam fire engine was brought here in Oct. 1877.—See "Fire Engine Stations" under "Public Buildings."

Fire Grates.—The first oven grate used in tins district was introduced in a house at "the City of Nineveh"