PAGE TWO
THE ECHO
OCTOBER, 1943
Ecusta Has A Large And Modern Fire Department
Members Of One Of The Four Fire Brigade Companies
Ecusta’s Fire Brigade consists of four separate companies, one for each-shift. Shown above is the
Shift D Company. Seated left to right they are as follows; R. Parris, J. Passmore, Paul Parris,
L. Johnson, T. Hargis, Leader, Dewey Bums and H. W. Meihaffey, Pump Man. Standing left to right:
H. W. Drake, Pumpman, Elmer Gevedon, W. W. Sizemore, Paul Owen and G. Austin.
Ecusta’s Fire Brigade Supervisors
Here they are! Reading from left to right—E. L. Happ, Herbert
Finck, Luke Harrison and R. J. Kappers.. These men have de
voted a great deal of time and study to the prevention and fight
ing of fire.
Brigade Consists Of
54 Members; Regular
Inspection Is Made
By Staff Writer
On December 5th, 1939, Mr. H.
H. Straus authorized the forma
tion of a Fire Department at
Ecusta and assigned the task of
organizing it to Herbert F. Finck
under whose supervision it was
developed into its present form.
Its main objective since incep
tion has been Fire Prevention sup
plemented by Fire Detection and
Fire Fighting.
To accomplish this there was
set up a system of routine weekly
fire inspections, a day and night
watchman service and a fire bri
gade, and to assist in its execu
tion, employees from various de
partments have been sent by Ecus
ta to attend the North Carolina Fire
College and Drill school held each
year by the North Carolina State
Firemen’s Association under the
supervision of Sherwood Brock-
well, State Fire Marshall.
Of those now serving the Fire
Department, Luke Harrison, elec
trician for Champagne Paper Cor
poration, attended four years and
is a graduate. Herbert Finck and
Tom Hargis, electrician for Ecusta,
each attended three years, and
Lewis Johnson, Millwright attend
ed two years.
The routine weekly fire inspec
tions are made by the Fire In
spector, Ernest Burch. They in
volve checking every item in the
plant connected with fire preven
tion and fighting, such as hydrants
and hydrant houses, hose, yard and
sprinkler valves, fire pumps, fire
tank ladders, oxygen and gas
masks, sprinkler systems, fire ex
tinguishers, fire doors, etc. The
position of Fire Inspector is on a
full-time basis.
Fire watchman service is pro
vided round the clock, seven days
a week at the Fibre Warehouses.
Additional service is provided for
the balance of the mill. To do
this requires seven watchmen, four
for the Fibre Warehouses and
three for the mill. They are Lee
Scruggs, Clarence Green, Jess Al
lison, Alfred Beddingfield, Yancey
McCrary, Horace Jones and Alvoid
Galloway.
The duties of theT watchmen are
primarily to discover fires, fire
hazards, leaks or other dangerous
conditions and to report them to
the proper party as soon as possi
ble. In case of a fire he turns in
the alarm through the nearest box,
remains to direct the firemen to
the fire and then resumes his
rounds.
Ecusta has a modern fire alarm
system with twenty-five alarm
boxes spaced around the mill.
Each box has a code number indi
cating the zone and the section of
the zone in which it is located.
The mill is divided into five
zones. Zones 1, 2, 3 and 4 lie
within the area surrounded by the
mill road; Zone 5 includes all areas
outside of the mill road. Zone 1
takes in the corrugated Fibre
Warehouses and the Caustic Tank
Building; Zone 2, the Chemical
Laboratory, Pilot Plant, Turbine
Room, Pre-digester and Pre-wash
er, Digester and Washer, Chemi
cal Mix, Bleach, Chemical Storage
and Refiner Buildings; Zone 3,
the Machine Shop, Machine Room
and Finishing Buildings; Zone 4,
the Storehouses, Converter Build
ing and Cafeteria; Zone 5, the
Wooden Fibre Warehouses, Boiler
Room, Pumphouses, Filter Plant
Machinery Storage Buildings, Of
fice, Gate House and Greenhouse.
A fire alarm is sent in by break
ing the glass in the alarm box with
the hammer which is attached for
that purpose. This automatically
sets the mechanism in operation
which sends out the signal over
the fire alarm and regular auto
call systems. A fire alarm signal
is readily distinguished from an
ordinary auto-call signal as it is
always preceded by ten short
rings. It is repeated four times
by bell and then three times by
the Boiler House whistle.
The Fire Brigade consists of fif-
ty-four members selected from
among the employees of the Mach
ine Shop, Electric Shop, Filter
Plant, and Champagne Paper Cor
poration. Each shift has its own
company subdivided as to leader,
fire fighters and pump men. The
Brigade is constituted as follows:
Supervisor, Herbert F. Finck;
Ass’t. Supervisors—R. J. Kappers,
E. L. Happ, Luke Harrison. In
spectors—Ernest Burch, general
and D. J. Luther, Fibre Waffe-
houses.
Shift A—L. Bagwell, leader, F.
Saunders, A. Holden, A. Hubbard,
Forest Lance, Robt. Marcum, W.
0. Morris, T. L. Conley, R. A. Ho
gan and B. Lancaster.
Shift B—R. Fulton, leader, C.
B. Frick, Clive Allen, C. Gardner,
E. O’Shields, H. Edmundson, W.
E. Mull, S. Crisp, K. Trefzer and
S. Harrington.
Shift C—E. Vassey, leader, J. S.
Parker, B. Allen, Ed McCall, Joe
Brown, J. Metcalf, J. Mehaffey, B.
Jones, H. D. Gordon, M. Nichol
son.
Shift D—T. Hargis, leader, R.
Parris, P. Owen, L. Johnson, P.
Parris, G. Austin, D. Bums, J.
Passmore, E. Gevedon, W. Size-
more.
Pump Men—Electric—H. Kol-
man, R. Kuykendall, J. Connell
and H. Mehaffey. Gasoline—J.
Mitchell, W. E. McLean, H. Meese
and H. Drake.
Drills are held as frequently as
practical and in accordance with
weather conditions.
The latest and best obtainable
fire fighting equipment has been
provided for the Brigade.
This consists of two centrifugal
fire pumps, each capable of deliv
ering 1,500 gallons of water per
minute at 100 pounds pressure
which is equivalent to 12 good
fire streams. One pump is driven
by electricity and takes its water
from the river, the other is driven
by a gasoline motor and takes its
water from the reservoirs. Twenty-
eight fire hydrants are distributed
over the mill yard and for each
there is provided from 150 to 400
feet of 2V2 inch hose, a total of
4,935 feet, together with 300 feet
of IV2 inch and 200 feet of % inch
hose, and all other necessary
equipment such as playpipes, spray
nozzles, Poweron nozzle, axes, lan
terns, hose shut-off, gas and oxy
gen masks, six regulation fire lad
ders and a No. 50 C02 wheeled
engine, etc.
Many of the buildings are fire
proof construction throughout, the
remainder are of semi-fireproof
construction and are protected by
automatic sprinklers, the Fibre
Warehouses by dry systems, the
others by wet systems. More than
5,000 sprinkler heads are now in
use. The fire tank has a capacity
of 100,000 gallons. The bottom of
the tank is 100 feet up, the top
130 feet, as high as a 13-story
building.
First aid fire fighting equipment
has been installed in all buildings
where needed. This equipment
Turn To Page Fifteen
Ecusta’s Fire Chief
Herbert Finck, who is the su
pervisor of the Fire Brigade, has
been in charge of the company’s
fire department since its organ*
ization.
The Taj Mahal at Agra, India*
was begun in 1632 and completed,
in 1650.