Improvements Made in the Department in the Past Year
1906

    During the past year the fire department has made many improvements.  Owing to the growth of the city, it has been necessary to keep constantly adding to the number of men and of horses and to the supply of fire-fighting apparatus.  There are now employed in the department 183 men, with a monthly payroll of $15,125.  There are 19 engine companies, all stationed in modern houses, with up-to-date equipment for quick fire service, equal to any, and the superior of many,  of our large eastern cities.  The department machine shop, established a year ago, has done all the necessary repairs to the apparatus during the past twelve months, besides completing a 65-foot telescope water tower, a wonderfully effective piece of machinery, able to throw a solid stream of water to a distance of many feet.  During the past year the city, besides adding largely to its stock of hose, has purchased five new engines, ten combinations hose and chemical wagons, and also an 85-foot quick-raising spring truck, with rubber tires and roller bearings, fully equipped with trussed ladders, pompier ladders, and life belts.  The department has also purchased, trained, and placed in service, 32 horses during the year.  In the twelve months covered by the 1904-5 report, there were 729 alarms turned in, 649 of them being for actual fires.  The total estimated loss was $525,000, a remarkably small sum for a city the size of Los Angeles.