Fire Alarm Form

I have spent quite a bit of time in Japan, not living there, but doing business there. So maybe not quite as much of an expert as some.I agree with 90% of the answers here. The ones that don't seem to ring quite true are the ones that imply that there's just as much crime in Japan as anywhere else, but it's just not reported, or it's ignored by the police as they co-exist with the Yakuza.Yes, the Yakuza represent organized crime in Japan. But my experience is that they don't commit crime on law abiding citizens. They provide 'services' that might not be looked on as desirable by most of society to those who seek out those services. They look after their interests in perhaps, shall we say, indelicate, maybe even occasionally violent ways. But unless you're looking for trouble, trouble won't find you. They won't break into your home to steal. They won't mug you on the street.And yes the police have an improbably high rate of solving crimes and getting convictions, some convictions being dubious.And yes, there is bullying in Japan and there is some sexual violence.But in my experience none of this accounts for the huge discrepancies between Japanese crime rates and western crime rates.A business colleague of mine tells the following story. He grew up in a tough neighborhood in Philadelphia. On his first business trip to Japan he noticed vending machines on the streets that sold beer. He was amazed. He couldn't understand how this could be legal. What stopped teenagers from buying beer? Even more improbable, what stopped punks from smashing the machines and stealing all the beer? Not one would still be standing in his old Phili neighborhood.Finally, he couldn't stand it any longer, he had to ask his Japanese hosts what the story was here. Upon hearing the question they looked at him a little strangely, not sure they understood the question, and then after finally assuring themselves that they heard correctly, their answer was simple:"Because they know they're not supposed to."This was a uniquely cultural answer that my colleague didn't at first understand. Of course they know they're not supposed to, all kids all over the world know they're not supposed to, but the difference in Japan is that kids believe it - at least far, far more than believe it in many other parts of the world. The difference is the unique culture.This issue of culture was mentioned in some of the answers, but not highlighted much. To me, the unique culture is a huge reason for why common crime, especially crimes against property, are so rare in Japan. The culture of societal shame is a very powerful force. And you don't just shame yourself. You shame your family, your friends, your community, your business colleagues.This is why you see very public, very visible and very sincere apologies from the presidents of huge companies when their company has done something wrong and has in some way hurt or cheated their customers. In fact an admission of guilt and a deep and sincere apology with genuine remorse can go a long way to getting the average citizen a much reduced punishment from the law.To understand this you need to understand a little about Japanese history. Until you've been to Japan it's difficult to understand just how little livable land there is on the islands. Probably 80%, maybe more is too mountainous to use. So everyone is cramped into a small space and historically, trying to get along, with paper walls, meant you had to behave. Especially in the old feudal system where a Samurai would as soon cut your head off at a stroke if you annoyed him. It didn't take long for societal norms of politeness, honesty, non-confrontation and so on to take hold.Japan is of course thoroughly modern today, and have whole heartedly, even enthusiastically embraced western ideas and adapted them to their culture, but the culture of shame for misdeeds has never gone away.UPDATESome have pointed out to me that there is a dark side to Japanese culture. That the Japanese are very tribal. That they consider themselves culturally superior to everyone else. That they can at times be dishonest in their extraordinary politeness, as a way to mask their disapproval or even disgust of non-Japanese people and their ways.This is true. I've witnessed it myself. It also explains their atrocious behavior in WWII.They've also pointed out that the culture is slowly changing. Also true. It's slowly becoming more westernized all the time. Including in areas relating to crime, especially among youth. I understand that the beer machines of my example are now getting phased out due to growing issues with underage drinking. My story above dates to the 90s.I have also been taken to task for impugning the good name of the Samurai. The Samurai lived by a well developed code of honor known as Bushido. They didn't go around whacking the heads off of people they didn't like whenever they felt like it. Another one of those honorable culture issues. I apologize to any Japanese I may have offended when I made a flippant remark in an attempt to make a point. Still, as in any feudal hierarchy, it wasn't in your best interest to offend the guy at the top who had the power of arms.Nonetheless, those aspects of Japanese culture that may be undesirable in other ways, those right wing elements of Japanese society that wish to return to the old days of Imperial Japan, actually reinforce the cultural prohibitions against common street crime.Japan is still among the safest countries on earth when it comes to street crime, interpersonal violence and crimes against property (Singapore is in the same league), if not the safest. The old culture is still strong.SOME FACTS AND FIGURESFound this interesting website that compares crime rates in different countries.Japan vs United States: Crime Facts and StatsI don't doubt that crimes such as rape are under reported in Japan. Rape is under reported in the US too.Even if you think the Japanese under report crime, it's hard to believe they could mask differences of the magnitude reported here.ANOTHER INTERESTING LOOK AT THE QUESTIONI really like Lim Son Eng's answer:Lim Son Eng's answer to Why is Japan so safe?I don't know how true it is, but it certainly sounds very plausible, and in some sort of way, I hope it is true. Maybe a Japanese native could comment one way or the other.NOVEMBER 2017 UPDATE:Please see the recently added comment from Kentaro Chiba for further insight into Lim Son Eng’s answer, and also into the role of the Yakuza in Japanese crime, as well into Japanese ultra-right wing politics.

Once upon a time, many years ago, there was a town of people who lived in beautifully architected wood houses. But like other towns in this area, fires were a huge danger. A single spark could bring the town into ashes within hours. So the townspeople developed an ingenious fire fighting system. Someone kept watch over the town from a watchtower. At the first sight of smoke, he sounded a gong that was only ever sounded when warning the townspeople about a fire. The moment the gong sounded, people would dropped everything and run to a pre-assigned location. Strongmen would pump water from the town’s wells, younger men and women would fill buckets as the water came up from the well, and the rest of the townspeople would form human chains leading from the wells to the fire. The bravest of the bunch would stand next to the fire and throw buckets of water until it was extinguished. One day a traveler from a nearby town heard the the gong, and asked someone on the street about it. The woman – who was rushing toward her preassigned location – explained, “Whenever there’s a fire, the gong is sounded and the fire is extinguished!”The traveler was amazed, and decided to bring this amazing gong technology back to his own faraway town - which also had problems with fires. Days later, he returned home with a gong that matched the one he saw on the watchtower. He gathered all the townspeople together, and he said, “You don’t need to fear the fire anymore. I have found a way to extinguish it. Watch… and I shall demonstrate.”The traveler lit a haystack on fire, and let the flames began to spread.  Then he took out the gong he’d purchased and banged on it. The fire only grew in its intensity, so he banged again. The fire continued to grow. “Just be patient… it should happen any moment now.” He banged harder and harder, but still the fire grew. Within hours the whole village had burned to the ground… for, of course, the traveler had misunderstood the purpose of the gong. It wasn’t used to put out fires. It was simply an alarm that guided the townspeople to action.  *****There’s a watchtower in your business too. In that watchtower, the gong has sounded. If you do nothing when you hear that noise, your business will burn to the ground. For a gong extinguishes no fires on its own. But if you let the gong motivate you to action, you can save a business... and create a  sense of purpose and resolve for you and your team. Yours will be a team that knows what it means to fight even the hottest fires.

NOOOOOOO. You are talking to a military romance scammer. I received an email from the US Army that directly answers your question that is pasted below please keep reading.I believe you are the victim of a military Romance Scam whereas the person you are talking to is a foreign national posing as an American Soldier claiming to be stationed overseas on a peacekeeping mission. That's the key to the scam they always claim to be on a peacekeeping mission.Part of their scam is saying that they have no access to their money that their mission is highly dangerous.If your boyfriend girlfriend/future husband/wife is asking you to do the following or has exhibited this behavior, it is a most likely a scam:Moves to private messaging site immediately after meeting you on Facebook or SnapChat or Instagram or some dating or social media site. Often times they delete the site you met them on right after they asked you to move to a more private messaging siteProfesses love to you very quickly & seems to quote poems and song lyrics along with using their own sort of broken language, as they profess their love and devotion quickly. They also showed concern for your health and love for your family.Promises marriage as soon as he/she gets to state for leave that they asked you to pay for.They Requests money (wire transfers) and Amazon, iTune ,Verizon, etc gift cards, for medicine, religious practices, and leaves to come home, internet access, complete job assignments, help sick friend, get him out of trouble, or anything that sounds fishy.The military does provide all the soldier needs including food medical Care and transportation for leave. Trust me, I lived it, you are probably being scammed. I am just trying to show you examples that you are most likely being connned.Below is an email response I received after I sent an inquiry to the US government when I discovered I was scammed. I received this wonderful response back with lots of useful links on how to find and report your scammer. And how to learn more about Romance Scams.Right now you can also copy the picture he gave you and do a google image search and you will hopefully see the pictures of the real person he is impersonating. this doesn't always work and take some digging. if you find the real person you can direct message them and alert them that their image is being used for scamming.Good Luck to you and I'm sorry this may be happening to you. please continue reading the government response I received below it's very informative.   You have contacted an email that is monitored by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command. Unfortunately, this is a common concern. We assure you there is never any reason to send money to anyone claiming to be a Soldier online. If you have only spoken with this person online, it is likely they are not a U.S. Soldier at all. If this is a suspected imposter social media profile, we urge you to report it to that platform as soon as possible. Please continue reading for more resources and answers to other frequently asked questions:  How to report an imposter Facebook profile: Caution-https://www.facebook.com/help/16... < Caution-https://www.facebook.com/help/16... >   Answers to frequently asked questions:  - Soldiers and their loved ones are not charged money so that the Soldier can go on leave.  - Soldiers are not charged money for secure communications or leave.  - Soldiers do not need permission to get married.  - Soldiers emails are in this format: john.doe.mil@mail.mil < Caution-mailto: john.doe.mil@mail.mil > anything ending in .us or .com is not an official email account.  - Soldiers have medical insurance, which pays for their medical costs when treated at civilian health care facilities worldwide – family and friends do not need to pay their medical expenses.  - Military aircraft are not used to transport Privately Owned Vehicles.  - Army financial offices are not used to help Soldiers buy or sell items of any kind.  - Soldiers deployed to Combat Zones do not need to solicit money from the public to feed or house themselves or their troops.  - Deployed Soldiers do not find large unclaimed sums of money and need your help to get that money out of the country.  Anyone who tells you one of the above-listed conditions/circumstances is true is likely posing as a Soldier and trying to steal money from you.  We would urge you to immediately cease all contact with this individual.  For more information on avoiding online scams and to report this crime, please see the following sites and articles:   This article may help clarify some of the tricks social media scammers try to use to take advantage of people: Caution-https://www.army.mil/article/61432/< Caution-https://www.army.mil/article/61432/>   CID advises vigilance against 'romance scams,' scammers impersonating Soldiers  Caution-https://www.army.mil/article/180749 < Caution-https://www.army.mil/article/180749 >   FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center: Caution-http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx< Caution-http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx>   U.S. Army investigators warn public against romance scams: Caution-https://www.army.mil/article/130...< Caution-https://www.army.mil/article/130...>   DOD warns troops, families to be cybercrime smart -Caution-http://www.army.mil/article/1450...< Caution-http://www.army.mil/article/1450...>   Use caution with social networking  Caution-https://www.army.mil/article/146...< Caution-https://www.army.mil/article/146...>    Please see our frequently asked questions section under scams and legal issues. Caution-http://www.army.mil/faq/ < Caution-http://www.army.mil/faq/ > or visit Caution-http://www.cid.army.mil/ < Caution-http://www.cid.army.mil/ >.  The challenge with most scams is determining if an individual is a legitimate member of the US Army. Based on the Privacy Act of 1974, we cannot provide this information. If concerned about a scam you may contact the Better Business Bureau (if it involves a solicitation for money), or local law enforcement. If you're involved in a Facebook or dating site scam, you are free to contact us direct; (571) 305-4056.   If you have a social security number, you can find information about Soldiers online at Caution-https://www.dmdc.osd.mil/appj/sc... < Caution-https://www.dmdc.osd.mil/appj/sc... > . While this is a free search, it does not help you locate a retiree, but it can tell you if the Soldier is active duty or not.  If more information is needed such as current duty station or location, you can contact the Commander Soldier's Records Data Center (SRDC) by phone or mail and they will help you locate individuals on active duty only, not retirees. There is a fee of $3.50 for businesses to use this service. The check or money order must be made out to the U.S. Treasury. It is not refundable. The address is:  Commander Soldier's Records Data Center (SRDC) 8899 East 56th Street Indianapolis, IN 46249-5301 Phone: 1-866-771-6357  In addition, it is not possible to remove social networking site profiles without legitimate proof of identity theft or a scam. If you suspect fraud on this site, take a screenshot of any advances for money or impersonations and report the account on the social networking platform immediately.  Please submit all information you have on this incident to Caution-www.ic3.gov < Caution-http://www.ic3.gov > (FBI website, Internet Criminal Complaint Center), immediately stop contact with the scammer (you are potentially providing them more information which can be used to scam you), and learn how to protect yourself against these scams at Caution-http://www.ftc.gov < Caution-http://www.ftc.gov > (Federal Trade Commission's website)

(Graphic/sickening content) To this day, I hate the person who did this. I never got a good look at this person and have never seen them or their care ever since.I was doing my normal 30 minute run of the day and I would usually finish my run at a dead end street, where I would give myself a 5 minute break. Once signNowing my stop, I would always go right under a tree to block the burning sun and rest. I was a bit hidden by the tree, so no one would be able to spot me unless they truly tried.I was in the middle of having my drink, when I noticed a navy blue Ford Explorer with tinted windows make a stop right next to the empty road, almost right beside me. I continued drinking my water, but stopped when the driver slid their window fully down. I couldn't see the driver well, because the driver seat was facing the opposite way from me. So I was only able to see the silhouette of the driver through the tinted windows.I was able to hear a commotion going on in the car, but after the driver put down their window, all I heard then were two children, a boy and a girl, repeatedly crying out, “Please don’t do it mom! Please don’t do it!” I was a bit interested in what they were talking about, so I hid a bit more, so that I wouldn't be seen snooping. The mother, who was the driver, kept telling them to shut up and in her exact words said “Shut up! Shut up, you crybabies! I have enough trouble caring for you two! I'll be damned if I have to care for these stupid things!”Through the tinted window, I was able to see her pick up what seemed to be an open cardboard box that was small enough to fit through the window, but big enough to put a variety of small objects in. The children kept screaming, “NO! NO!”. As a speeding car was coming down the road, she threw the box right in its path without giving it a chance to react. At that moment, I heard tiny meows coming from in the box as it flew through the air towards the ground. I froze in horror as the box hit the front tire of the speeding car and the box went right under. All heard as the box went under the tire was a disturbing wet crackling noise that still haunts me to this day.By the time the car fully ran over the box, the mother with her children were long gone, speeding the opposite direction of the other car. I couldn’t believe what I just saw. I just stood still and watched as the man came out of his car to see what he ran over. I was hoping that it was anything other than what I thought it was. To my horror, the man pulled out the now almost fully flat box and it was oozing out this bright reddish liquid, which I believe was blood. The man took one look in the box and immediately threw up on his car. The man dropped the flat box, went in his car, and drove away.I was so stunned that I stared at the box for a good ten seconds. I couldn't believe I witnessed this. I knew what was in the box, but I refused to believe it. My sick curiosity wanted to see what was truly inside that box. I didn’t want to believe that there were kittens in there. I finally came out of my daze and went across the street towards the box. The closer I got, the faster my heart began to beat. Standing right over it, I saw the small opening the man left as he peeked inside. Looking inside the box was the biggest mistake of my life. What I saw was the most traumatizing image that still sticks to me to this day. I won’t describe it because just thinking about the image makes me sick.After seeing what was inside, it was for a fact that inside the box was a group of disfigured, flat baby kittens that weren't even given a chance to live another day. How could she? I said to myself. How could anyone be so disgusting? I knew there was nothing I could do, so instead of leaving the box on the ground exposed, I put it in a nearby garbage can. The box left a red stained road with a bit of the box left on it and all I did right after was walk straight home, leaving behind my bottle of water at the tree where this all started.I wanted to share this story because I had it as a secret from my family at home and I don't plan on ever telling them. Just writing this story was a huge struggle for me. As you can see on my profile picture, I own an orange male cat that I have taken care of since birth. I could not stand it if anything horrible were to happen to him.Thank you for reading my experience.Those poor poor children.

This happened some time ago, when I was in the first grade. When I was in elementary school, my daily commute consisted of these steps: 1. Walk to the subway station [15 min]; 2. Take the 丸の内 (Marunouchi) line [10 min]; 3. Cross the 御茶ノ水 (Ochanomizu) bridge to the JR station [5 min]; 4. Take the 中央 (Chūō) line to 吉祥寺 (Kichijōji) [30 min]; 5. Take a bus to school [15 min]. When everything was said and done, it was about 1.5-hour process.I was 6 years old. During the first week of school, my mom accompanied me the entire way. I arrived at school safely, and when she repeatedly told me which exit I should take at each train station, I was quite proud I remembered them all. If you’ve been to Japan/Tokyo, you’d know how important this is - as each station has multiple exits going out to different parts of town. So I was like, “I know, I know, mom, yes, at 吉祥寺 (Kichijōji) you exit out of 北口 (kitaguchi), the north exit, and go left, and take one of the buses from #1 & #2 stops.”The second week came, and it was time for me to start the journey on my own. The commute required me to wake up quite early, and I was sleepy. I took the subway. Marched across the bridge. Got on the 中央 (Chūō) line. Score! Got a seat. I sat, very alert, looking at the stations as they came and went. Then… I fell asleep for a minute.“Shoot!” I woke up thinking, turned around and looked out the window. Lucky me, I didn’t go past the intended station. As the train slowly pulled into the station, I jumped out. Whew. Now, all I need to do is to find the 北口, north exit.I trotted down the stairs and looked around. Except… there was NO north exit.I walked around the central area in circles. How could this be?! This looked like the right place. Just like I did it with mom last week. But no, there was no 北口.Resigned, I went to the ticket booth to ask. I sheepishly asked, “あの、北口はどこですか？ (Where is the north exit?)” to which the nice 駅員さん (station attendant) said, “There is no north exit.”I bursted out in tears. This was my first day doing this on my own. All the tension I was holding broke, like a tense guitar string. It didn’t make any sense. It was going so wrong!The 駅員さん (station attendant), while being perplexed, asked me: “Where are you trying to go?” Barely able to speak through tears I said, “North exit. Of 吉祥寺 (Kichijōji). I need to take the bus to school. But there’s no north exit.”Knowingly he said, “Wait here.” He went off to the station office, and got someone else to cover the booth. Mind you, this is during the heavy morning commute time in Tokyo. Then he walked me back onto the train platform where I got off. He explained to me, “You got off one station too early. This is 西荻窪 (Nishiogikubo).”Aaaaaah. It sort of… made sense. I was in a panicked state. I was afraid I’d be late for school. The next train came and slid into the station.I thought he was going to see me off then, but amazingly, he stepped into the train with me, holding my hand. He rode that one-station ride with me, so he could make sure I’d arrive safely to the “north exit” I was looking for.We arrived at my intended station, Kichijōji. He got off with me, then walked me to the booth at… you guessed it, the north exit. I’d stopped crying, but I could barely thank him. I was stumped at what just happened.I made it to school on time that day.There are prickly things about Japan, too, but I never forget all the kindness I encountered during the time I did that commute every day.

I was selected for a summer internship 2016.I tried to be very open while filling the preference form: I choose many products as my favorite products and I said I'm open about the team I want to join.I even was very open in the  location and start date to get host matching interviews (I negotiated the start date in the interview until both me and my host were happy.) You could ask your recruiter to review your form (there are very cool and could help you a lot since they have a bigger experience).Do a search on the potential team.Before the interviews,  try to find smart question that you are going to ask for the potential host (do a search on the team  to find nice and deep questions to impress your host). Prepare well your resume.You are very likely not going to get algorithm/data structure questions like in the first round. It's going to be just some friendly chat if you are lucky. If your potential team is working on something like machine learning, expect that  they are going to ask you questions about machine learning, courses related to machine learning you have and relevant experience (projects, internship). Of course you have to study that before the interview. Take as long time as you need if you feel rusty. It takes some time to get ready for the host matching (it's less than the technical interview)  but it's worth it of course.

Nuclear reactor, yes. Nuclear bomb, no.Two University of Chicago physics students - Justin Kasper and Fred Niell - built a breeder reactor from thorium scavenged from vacuum tubes that produced trace amounts of uranium and plutonium as part of the annual University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt.  Their team placed second that year.[1]The challenge was inspired by the sad case of David Hahn, aka the Radioactive Boy Scout. Hahn earned a Boy Scout merit badge in Atomic Energy and set about building his own breeder reactor. He collected radioactive materials: Hahn diligently amassed this radioactive material by collecting small amounts from household products, such as americium from smoke detectors, thorium from camping lantern mantles, radium from clocks and tritium (a neutron moderator) from gunsights. His "reactor" was a bored-out block of lead, and he used lithium from $1,000 worth of purchased batteries to purify the thorium ash using a Bunsen burner. From David Hahn Unlike Kasper and Neill's reactor, Hahn's reactor did not work, but he did manage to expose himself to dangerous levels of radioactivity and when caught with radioactive materials, he was investigated by the FBI and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The EPA cleaned up the shed were Hahn did his experiments as part of the Superfund toxic site program.[2]In 2007, Hahn was arrested for stealing smoke detectors, apparently in another bid to collect radioactive materials.So, if you really want to build a nuclear bomb, you could start off by building a breeder reactor, isolate the plutonium or uranium produced and collect enough to make a critical mass. You will also need a large amount of high explosives in order to actually make a nuclear bomb that goes boom. Between possession of explosives, violations of environmental safety laws, as well as a whole heaping helping of other laws courtesy of the Global War on Terror that take a dim view of such activities, it would be a long, long time before you got out of the Big House. [1] On Campus; It's that season at Chicago, and Ph.D.'s have taken a back seat to a degree of silliness.  [2] The Radioactive Boy Scout 

In the good old days cities burned down on a regular basis. Boston burned down many times. Even in times stretching back to post-Colonial days there was commercial insurance for certain buildings, certainly on ships and goods, and it was always possible to take a risk. But when cities largely burned the survivors still had the city and cities sprung up where they were for a reason, either because of ports, or rivers to run the mills or something that made their location worthwhile. And land is forever. Whomever owned the land always had a foundation on to rebuild. And since the city existed because of something it made sense to rebuild on that same spot.Fire fighting changed from desperation where the main goal was to save the furniture and not the building to a science. The expression “By hook or by crook” originated from fire fighting where the main tool for fighting fire was a hook and a Y-shaped pole called a crook that was used to raise burning timbers while the hook was used to pull them from the building. The first fire engine in Boston dates to 1793 and it was little more than a wagon with a garden hose and a hand pump. People had to pour bucket after bucket into the wagon while someone pumped a stream of water onto the fire. Every house had leather fire buckets hung up around the house filled with water, or capable of being filled with water when the time came. That was the first line of defense. People emblazoned their names on the buckets because when the church bells sounded “fire” everyone ran with their buckets to help. A bucket brigade was formed and the only way you got your bucket back after the fire was if your name was painted on it. And in a world where houses were largely wood, heated by fire and used candles and oil lamps for light, fire was an ever-present danger. There was often a fire watch kept just to look out for fires. And when wooden pipes were run under the street as water mains they would be dug up in time of fire and drilled into to get at the water. When the fire was out a wooden “fire plug” was used to close the hole drilled into that pipe.One of the main reasons Boston burned so much was because it became a major rope making center and the last step of making rope is to soak it in massive vats of pine pitch to keep it from rotting. The pitch was heated in massive vats by fire underneath and was extremely flammable. If the pitch boiled over it would set the entire rope walk on fire, and then the city. In Boston laws were passed in the 1830s that all non-government rope walks had to be built over the Mill Pond (now Back Bay) to prevent the spread of fire. This was so critical that the city of Boston paid to have the private companies moved. In addition, Boston became one of the first cities to build in granite because granite didn’t burn. The first permanent granite building in America is King’s Chapel on Tremont Street where a bell made by Paul Revere is still regularly struck.Additional advances in fire fighting were made. From man-drawn fire wagons with hand pumps we progressed to horse drawn wagons with steam pumps. Boston received its first steam powered fire engine in 1854 and it was pushed to the fire by teams of men. It used a steam pump to suck water from a source and propel it under pressure to the fire. It required a coal wagon to follow it, the small amount of auxiliary coal it carried was insufficient to sustain it. Still, it required someone to see the fire and race to the fire station and tell the firemen where the fire was, they had to hitch up the horses, fire up the steam boiler and then race to the fire. One of the biggest problems was the non-standardization of fire hydrants, a problem that wasn’t fully resolved until the 1930s. Every hydrant had different sized spigots and were color coded. Some engines carried some kind of hose; some didn’t carry that hose. Firemen were hired on a private firefighting basis. If you didn’t pay your monthly dues they let your house burn and other fire teams couldn’t help because their hoses wouldn’t fit your hydrant. It was a racket.In factories special conically shaped fire-fighting buckets were hung at regular intervals, shaped in that fashion to that they could only be used for fire-fighting. Glass containers of water and lime or fire retardants could be thrown at the base of the fire. Chemical fire extinguishers started to be installed in buildings and had to be turned upside down to allow the chemicals to mix, form gas pressure and spurt the water at the fire. They are antiques now and widely sought, made of attractive brass and copper.In 1872 the Great Boston Fire struck downtown Boston. No one is sure how it started but it was in a great granite warehouse filled with cloth and once it got started it took off. Because it was a granite structure it was thought the building would not be a catastrophic loss but one thing they learned was that when it gets hot enough, granite explodes. The fire spread rapidly. And at that time there was a massive horse virus that had crippled most of the fire teams. And the teams that could make it to the scene discovered their hoses wouldn’t fit the hydrants available at the time. Additionally, gas was being used for lighting and when the gas lines ignited they would blow up an entire wall. The fire spread rapidly and inexorably. Almost all of the business and financial district was burned to the ground. By extraordinary effort the Old South Meeting House, which was right in the middle of the fire, was saved as was the Atlantic Monthly offices and Newspaper Row.In the wake of the fire the son of the psignNower of the Arlington St Church invented the fire alarm. Fire Box 1 is still located in Boston on School Street not far from where the fire first erupted. Those little red boxes on telephone poles represented a major leap forward in firefighting. Now when a fire was discovered one need only pull the fire alarm and a coded signal was sent to fire headquarters who relayed it to the appropriate fire station. The time to signNow and attack the fire was greatly reduced.When gasoline engines came into being then horse drawn firefighting vehicles began to disappear, but it was slow to occur. The first combination steam-gas fire engines and ladder appeared in the early 1900s but the last horse drawn, steam powered fire engine was not retired in Boston until 1938.There were numerous major fires throughout Boston’s history. In the book “Boston’s Fire History” one can see everything from major East Boston lumber yards to the entire waterfront dock complexes to the Cocoanut Grove, scene of the highest loss of life to fire in America in 1942, to Blinstrubs to the tragic Vendome fire that cost the lives of many firefighters and many, many other major fires.People endured. It was all they could do. Those who survived recovered what they could and moved on. Perhaps they were ruined financially. Perhaps they had relatives who took them in. But they had no other choice but to endure. The property would be rebuilt to modern standards, balloon construction was outlawed because it allowed the fire to race through buildings without any breaks, burning entire tenements to the ground in less than an hour. Joists that soared straight up were outlawed in the building codes: there had to be blocks every so often to starve fire of oxygen and slow it down. Insulating materials like paper and chicken feathers were outlawed. More mud and plaster was used over laths to create a fire-resistant interior. When electricity came in, knob and tube wiring had to be insulated and separated by so many inches. Wires had to be covered in cloth insulation. Fuse boxes were required. Multiple methods of egress were required in all buildings. After Cocoanut Grove, buildings were required to have doors that opened outwards and there had to be a door next to every revolving door. Fire exits could not be locked (or chained shut as they were at that doomed restaurant). In commercial buildings fusible link sprinklers were installed such that when a certain temperature was signNowed the lead inside the sprinkler would melt and cause a spring-loaded valve to open and spray water, but truth be told, by the time the fire signNowed those temps it was probably too late anyway.In the good old days insurance was as much of a scam as it is now. Many insurance companies simply refused to pay. Others declared bankruptcy and re-opened under a new name to avoid paying. Others declared buildings that were burned down were destroyed by other means, something they still do today, all to avoid paying out claims. And many that did pay went out of business after the Boston Fire of 1872.Property damage was not the only issue. Burns from fires were frequently deadly, the body simply couldn’t cope. There were many competing theories on how to treat fire victims but it wasn’t until the Cocoanut Grove fire in Boston in 1942 that recently postulated theories on how to treat fire victims were put into place and many were saved. But until then fire was a sure and painful killer, long after the fire was out. For centuries Blacksmiths had a saying that for every second human skin was exposed to burning temperatures it had to be submerged for at least ten minutes in cold water. Of course, this didn’t apply to third degree burns which in the time before and blood plasma often resulted in shock, infection, septicemia, dehydration, organ failure and a slow, painful death. Amputation was a common palliative.As for the city, a big fire had certain benefits, too. Streets could be straightened and changed to suit the changing needs of the city. Obsolete buildings could be removed and make way for urban renewal. New structures would have better materials, increase property values and be even safer. Eventually the property would be even more valuable and command higher rents and higher tax revenues.Now, building codes are so strict that very few buildings actually burn out of control. Most of the time it’s kitchen fires that are easily extinguished. We have engineered our way to the point where fire is rare. But back in the good old days fire was a double-edged sword, needed for life, but the frequent cause of death and destruction. In the end people did what they always do - they endured.