FIRE AT THE FALCK HOTEL - 1923
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September 13, 1923, George Falck and his wife were sleeping in the upstairs apartment of their hotel. They were awakened by the smell of smoke. Mr. Falck traced the smell to the basement where it became more intense. He knew he had to take action. Test your firefighting acumen by completing the quiz based on the decisions made at the time. The answers are at the bottom of the page.
1. What should he do?
A. Continue to investigate to find the source of the smoke.
B. Ignore the smoke and go back to bed.
C. Call the Seymour Volunteer Fire Department to report the fire.
2. You are Art Wolk, the Seymour Fire Chief, you receive a fire call from the Falck Hotel at 5:15 AM, what do you do?
A. Drive to the hotel to personally investigate.
B. Go to city hall and ring the fire bell to alert the volunteer firemen.
C. Since the hotel is only two blocks from city hall, personally drive the fire truck to the hotel.
3. You are the Seymour Fire Chief and you arrive at the hotel with a number of volunteer firemen. Upon investigation you discover a fire burning in the basement. A draft coming from the clothes chute is feeding the fire burning in a pile of boards, bags, and rubbish. Smoke and gas make it difficult to fight the fire. What do you do?
A. Call the Appleton Fire Department for help. They have better equipment and trained professionals.
B. Flood the basement to suffocate the fire.
C. Continue fighting the fire without calling for assistance.
4. You are the Chief of the Appleton Fire Department. You receive a call from Seymour asking for help. The Appleton City Council has ordered you to never take the fire trucks outside the city limits. What do you do?
A. Follow the rules of the city council and reject Seymour’s request.
B. Leave Appleton immediately with one truck and several men.
C. Drive your personal car to Seymour to help.
5. The posted speed limit is 30 MPH. Seymour is about 30 miles away. If you drive the truck at the speed limit, it will take a hour or more and most likely you will be too late to save the building and the contents. What do you do?
A. Follow the speed limit. You don’t want to put your men or others at risk.
B. Drive as fast as necessary to arrive as soon as possible.
C. Remove all extra equipment from the truck to be able to drive faster and safer.
6. You arrive in Seymour with four men and a fully loaded truck. You averaged about 45 miles an hour. How long did the tip take?
A. 38 minutes B. 66 minutes C. 24 minutes
7. You are the Appleton Fire Chief and you meet the Seymour Chief in front of the Hotel. How does he greet you?
A. He wants to stay in charge, but asks for your assistance.
B. He explains the situation and turns the command over to you.
C. When the Appleton Fire Department arrived the Seymour volunteers went home.
8. The professional firefighters from Appleton took charge and they fought the fire with assistance from the Seymour volunteers. What happened?
A. The fire was extinguished and the building was saved.
B. The hotel burned to the ground.
C. The fire spread to other buildings destroying much of the city.
9. Even though the actions of the Appleton Chief saved the hotel and downtown Seymour, the Appleton City Council met to decide what action should be taken against the chief for taking the truck out of the city limits. What did they do?
A. They fired the chief for breaking the rules.
B. They took no action since, “It was the right thing to do.”
C. They replaced the chief, but allowed him to stay on the force.
10. Seymour Mayor L. H. Waite wrote a letter to the officials of the city of Appleton. What did he say?
A. He offered to pay for the cost of sending the truck to Seymour.
B. He thanked the city and offered to assist Appleton if they ever needed help.
C. He criticized the Appleton Department for interfering in Seymour’s affairs.
Answers to the quiz: 1-C, 2-B, 3-A, 4-B, 5-B, 6-C, 7-B, 8-A, 9-B, and 10-B