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fire in all houses and buildings in the Metropolis.
The Vestry agreed with the views expressed therein
and forwarded a letter to the Home Secretary in
accordance therewith.
In January a letter was received from the Vestry
of Islington, in favour of Fire escapes being available
at any hour of the day or night, but suggesting
that the police should be trained to use them
during the daytime, and asking the Vestry, if it
concurred with those views, to communicate with the
Home Secretary, the Commissioner of Police, and
the Metropolitan Board of Works to that effect.
The Vestry concurred with the representations
made in such letter, and communicated with the
authorities suggested accordingly.
The Commissioner of Police answered the various
representations by a letter to the Paddington
Vestry as follows:
"With reference to your letter of the 6th inst., I am directed
by the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis to acquaint you
that he understands the point which the Vestry urge on his consideration
to be that the members of the Police Force ought to be
trained in the use of Fire Escapes, and that it should be a
standing duty of the Police to procure the Fire Escapes in all
cases where the necessary Firemen are not at hand.
"Under the present rules the Police give every assistance
which they can on the occasion of a fire breaking out in their
Divisions, and the benefit which the public derive from their
efforts is cheerfully acknowledged. The Commissioner has not
the slightest wish to lessen the assistance which is now given; on
the contrary, he has now arranged with the Metropolitan Board
of Works that at some selected Police Stations, Fire Escapes will
be allowed to remain. But while anxious to give accommodation
on Police premises for Fire Escapes, the Commissioners cannot
agree with the Vestry that the working of such Fire Escapes, till
the Firemen arrive, should be imposed on the Police as a duty.
Such a duty cannot legally be demanded from a Police Constable
as a Constable; and while, as before, the Police will on the
occasion of Fire, cheerfully give all the assistance which they can
afford consistently with their other important duties, the Commissioner
cannot accept on their behalf the responsibility which
the Yestry think should be attached to them as a standing duty."