IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 6

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Firefighters and
Utility Poles
this letter is for Joseph cunningham,
author of the "History" article "ac
Pioneer" that appeared in the May/June
2013 issue of IEEE Power & Energy
Magazine (vol, 11, no. 3, pp. 84-98).
When my copy of the magazine arrived
in my mailbox, I, of course, turned first
to Joe's article, which describes so well
the early history of the united electric
Light & Power co. and the development of ac power distribution in new
York city. one of the features that
caught my eye was that, from the early
1890s onward, the proliferation of very
tall utility poles with six, and sometimes as many as eight, crossarms carrying a tangle of telegraph, telephone,
and open-conductor power distribution circuits had already been banned
in favor of underground conduits. this
was apparently because of the difficulty these open circuits caused firefighters and their ladders.
It just so happens that here in toronto,
ontario, our much respected paper, the
Globe and Mail, publishes a piece each
morning describing some event that
took place on that same day many years
previously. By coincidence, on 19 april
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPE.2013.2284629
Date of publication: 17 December 2013

6

ieee power & energy magazine

figure 1. The Toronto business center after the fire of 19 April 1904.

of this year, it carried a piece about a
huge fire that gutted 20 acres of the
downtown business center of toronto
on 19 april 1904, despite the fact that
extra firefighters were rushed in by
express train from surrounding cities.
the accompanying photograph published in the Globe and Mail shows the
extent of the devastation (Figure 1). It
seems that in the subsequent review,
in addition to inadequate water pressure, two additional difficulties were
identified: 1) a web of electric wires
prevented the firefighters from placing

their ladders against the upper floors
of buildings and 2) the comparatively
new feature of elevator shafts acting
as chimneys inside the buildings. and,
alas, I suppose we have to recognize
that the elevators were electrically
driven. But fortunately there were no
fatalities in a fire that was the largest
in toronto since 1849. It is too bad that
toronto hadn't followed the example of
new York.
Keep up the good work.
-David E. Hepburn
january/february 2014



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014

IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - Cover1
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - Cover2
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 1
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 2
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IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - Cover3
IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - Cover4
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