CHIEF ENGINEER'S OFFICE, FIRE DEPARTMENT,
San Francisco, October 5, 1863.

To the Hon. Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco :

GENTLEMEN : In accordance with the Resolution of your Honorable Body, I beg to submit my report of the affairs of the Fire Department for the past year.

FIRES.
It is a matter of great satisfaction to myself to be able to refer to the very limited loss by fire during the past year. I think it has not been so great by one-half as that of former years. This is owing entirely to the determination of the members of the Fire Department to canny out the purposes of their organization with credit to themselves ; being thus prompted and nourishing a strong feeling of unity and fellowship towards each other, encouraged by a bountiful supply of hydrants and cisterns, and the prompt and liberal manner in which your honorable Body have at all times responded to their demands for repairs, &c., they have performed miracles in their sphere of duty that will ever remain to their credit on the pages of our municipal history.

BELL TOWER.
I am gratified in being able to, and it is with feelings of pleasure that I acknowledge your promptness in taking this subject under serious consideration. No person or persons can fully appreciate how much the same is needed like those whose duty it is to answer its call. From your prompt action in the matter (as soon as the Legislature vested you with the power), I am confident that our citizens will soon enjoy this much required source of protection, and the Department will refer with pleasure to the liberal manner in which they are rewarded for the self-sacrificing manner in which they perform their duty at all times.

BADGES.
I regret exceedingly that the law passed by the Legislature two years ago, providing badges for the Fire Department, was not amended at the last session in such a manner as to empower your honorable Body to provide the same. I consider them as most essential, in order to prevent persons not members of the Fire Department from assuming the garb of firemen for the purpose of plunder, &c. I trust you will give this matter your earnest consideration.

GUNPOWDER.
In my various former reports I called the attention of your honorable Body to the necessity of the passage of an ordinance providing how much and in what manner gunpowder should be kept. Unless some law is passed regulating the same, there will be no security for the life of a fireman while in the discharge of his duty. In that connection I would renew my former recommendation, viz., the passage of a law confiscating for the benefit of the Fire Department Charitable or Cemetery Fund, all over a certain number of pounds, to be regulated by your Board.

EUREKA HOSE COMPANY.
It is with regret I notice the veto of his Honor the Mayor, to the ordinance admitting Eureka Hose Company into the Fire Department. I consider them absolutely necessary for the protection of property in their vicinity, remote as it is from any other fire company.

UNPROTECTED PROPERTY.
Our City is so rapidly extending north, south and west, that, for the protection of property, a number of cisterns and hydrants are required in Hayes' Valley and vicinity. Branch pipes should be laid and hydrants set as soon as possible.

COMPANIES RUNNING ON SIDEWALKS.
An ordinance should be immediately passed by your honorable Body, prohibiting companies from running on sidewalks, (unless the street is impassable). It is a practice most dangerous to both property and pedestrians. I shall strictly enforce any law your honorable Body think proper to pass.

CISTERNS.
A large number of public cisterns are in bad order, and require repairing. They should always be kept in repair, in case of accident to the water works or reservoir which supply the hydrants.

HOSE.
There are at present ten thousand feet of good hose in the Department, and about five thousand bad.

DAVID SCANNELL
Chief Engineer