To the Honorable the Board of Fire Commissioners of the City and County of San Francisco :

GENTLEMEN' In conformity with a rule of your Honorable Body. I have the honor to present to you this the Sixth Annual Beport of the San Francisco Paid Fire Department.

I respectfully present a detailed statement of the condition and working of the Paid Fire Department for the Fiscal Year ending June 30th, 1872, together with such recommendations as my experience as Chief Engineer suggests, and which, if carried out, will, in my opinion, greatly increase its efficiency and enable it to cope more successfully with fires.

I have endeavored to present to your Honorable Body in this Keport all the items of interest connected with the working of the Department during the Fiscal Year just closed. In it will be found a complete roll of the Department, including number of badge, name, position, age, residence and occupation of every man attached to the Department proper, a list of men employed at the Corporation Yard of the Department and their respective positions, together with a detailed statement of the property in possession of the Department, including Engines, Hose Reels, Hook and Ladder Carriages and appurtenances thereto; Hose, Horses, and property at the Corporation Yard. Also, a list of the number and location of Hydrants and Cisterns, from which a supply of water can be obtained when required, together with a list of the number and location of Signal Boxes; a record of the fires and alarms during the Fiscal Year commencing July 1st, 1871, and ending June 30th, 1872; the origin of all fires, as far as it could be ascertained; a statement of the losses by fire during the year: amount of insurance on property damaged or destroyed, and amount of insurance paid; the number of alarms responded to by each Company, number of times in service, and time at work on fires, and a statement of all such losses that exceeded two hundred dollars.

It affords me pleasure to testify to (he fact, that during the past year the officers and members of the Department have, by their promptness in responding to the calls of duty and through their skill and daring in battling with the fiery element, maintained for the Department that reputation for efficiency and bravery which it has enjoyed since its organization a reputation second to that of no other Fire Department in America.

During the year just closed nearly every large city in the Union has been visited with disastrous conflagrations; nor has our city escaped unscathed. A number of fires occurred during the last year, which threatened destruction to a very large amount of property; but the promptness and bravery of the members of the Department prevented any very serious conflagration in every case, with perhaps one exception, that of the Harpending Block fire, where a very large amount of property was destroyed, the loss by that fire amounting to within a fraction of the total loss caused by all other fires that occurred during the year.

The fire occurred during my absence from the city, I having been prostrated by a severe illness, and when convalescent, ordered by my physician to a warmer climate; and with the permission of your Honorable Body, I was absent from the city, hoping to benefit my health by a short stay in the country, and return to my duties in a short time.

After carefully weighing all the facts and taking into consideration the peculiar character of the building, and the opportunity afforded for the spread of the flames by the peculiar construction of the upper portion of the block where the fire originated, I am of the opinion that had the Department been supplied with ladders of sufficient length to reach the upper floors, and had the supply of water been ample when the Department arrived on the ground, a portion of the block might have been saved. I will add, that in my opinion the Hayes Truck, which has been recently put in condition for service, will remove one of the causes which lead to so disastrous a conflagration, as by the aid of this truck several streams can be placed in position on the roof of the highest building in the city in a very few minutes after its arrival at a fire.

Section five of the Act passed at the last session of the Legislature, amending the Fire Department Law, provided that forty thousand dollars a year shall be allowed for running expenses, twenty-five thousand for the purchase of Hose and Apparatus, and twenty-five thousand for the construction of Cisterns and the purchase of Hydrants. With the present force, these amounts will be ample to meet the expenses of the Department.

All the apparatus of the Department in actual service is in good working condition; but in my judgment additional apparatus should be purchased, for while the number of Steam Fire Engines and other apparatus in possession of the Department and available for the purpose of extinguishing fires may be adequate for all ordinary purposes, I desire to say that our city, standing as it does almost entirely isolated from any point from which assistance could reach us, if we should be visited with a calamity by fire as great in proportion to the size of the city, compared with large cities on the other side of the Rocky Mountains, as some of our sister cities on that side of the mountains have been visited with during the past year, we would have to rely wholly upon the fire apparatus in our possession for the preservation of the city, or a large portion of it, from total destruction; for, unlike Eastern cities, where in a short time by the aid of the telegraph and steam, detachments from the Fire Departments of neighboring cities could be transferred to the city hreatened with destruction, we would call in vain for assistance, if visited by a conflagration so great that our Fire Department could not successfully cope with. I, therefore, respectfully recommend, for the efficiency of the Department and the better protection of our city, the purchase of the following apparatus and machinery :

STEAM FIRE ENGINES.
I recommend the purchase of two additional Steam Fire Engines (Amoskeag make), to be placed in the Corporation Yard as Reserve Engines, to be used in case of a large conflagration, with which our city, composed as it is to a great extent of houses built of very inflammable material, may be visited during the dry season, when as has been the case this year, we have strong winds blowing every day for several months. The cost of the engines would be but a trifle compared with the lost the city may suffer at one fire, if the present force of the Department should prove insufficient, or one or more of the engines should become disabled while in service at a fire; then again, the additional security afforded the citizens would more than repay the city for the expense incurred by the purchase of the engines.

EXTRA. MACHINERY.
I also respectfully recommend the purchase of the following extra parts of machinery for the apparatus of the Department, as it is absolutely necessary to have the means at hand for promptly repairing breakages in case of accidents occurring to the apparatus of the Department, viz :
            One set of Composition Tubes, for Boilers;
            Two Extra Wheels for each Engine ;
            Six Extra Wheels for Hose Reels;
            Two sets of half-Elliptic Springs, for Engines;
            One small Suction for Engine.

WORK SHOP.
An Act of the Legislature, passed at the last session, authorizes and empowers the Board of Supervisors to establish and maintain a work shop at the Corporation Yard for making the necessary repairs to Department apparatus, and I trust your Honorable Body will urge the necessity of immediately establishing said shop, and employing a Machinist, Blacksmith and "Wheelwright; these together with the Superintendent of Engines, who will have charge of the shop, could make all the necessary repairs to the Department apparatus, and in this way it would be well and quickly done, at less cost than under the present system of making repairs. In fact, I believe a very great saving could be effected for the city by the establishment of the shop and employment of competent persons to make the repairs; the men should be employed permanently. A horse-shoer and harness-maker should also be employed to do all work in their department, and I am confident that with a work shop, supplied with the necessary tools and other appliances required for doing the repairing, all the work of the Department could be well and expeditiously done at less cost than under the present system, and the saving so effected would in a short time reimburse the city for the outlay required to establish the shop.

TOOLS FOR WORK SHOP.
I therefore recommend the purchase of the following tools for use in the work shop, viz :
            One medium size Lathe ;
            One Drilling Machine and Plane, with Portable Engine and Boiler;
            One Blacksmith's Forge and Tools, complete;
            Together with an assortment of Taps, Dies, etc.

HOUSES.
The house of Hook and Ladder Company No. 1, situated on O'Farrell street, is in a very bad condition, the upper story being insecure and dangerous to such an extent that the lives of the members of the Company, residing in the house, are imperilled by reason of the unsafe condition of the walls. The upper portion of the house should in my opinion be removed; this change with a few slight repairs to other portions of the building would place the house in a fair condition.

The house occupied by Engine Company No. 8, situated on Pacific street near Jones, is in a wretched condition; in fact, uninhabitable, and no amount of repairing will make it habitable. A new house should be erected for this Company without delay.

With these two exceptions, the buildings used by the Department are in a very fair condition.

HOSE.
The Board of Supervisors, at the request of your Honorable Body, have purchased, or are about to purchase, seven thousand feet of Carbolized Hose for the use of the Department. With this additional supply, the Department will be in possession of enough first-class hose for all ordinary purposes (about twelve thousand feet of Carbolized Hose) ; but we should have a large quantity on hand at the Corporation Yard, from which the Department could draw in case of need, so that if an extensive fire should occur, at which a large quantity of hose might be destroyed, the Department could be supplied without delay with enough to replace that destroyed.

CISTERNS.
In my last Annual Report I called the attention of your Honorable Body to the leaky condition of a number of Cisterns, and recommended that they be repaired. The work of repairing has been commenced and is progressing rapidly, so that in a short time all the Cisterns will be in good serviceable condition.

I again recommend the construction of two Cisterns of large size in the localities named below : One at the crossing of Beale and Howard streets, and one at the crossing of Beale and Mission streets. It is absolutely necessary that these cisterns should be built, as the water mains in that portion of the city will not afford an abundant supply of water in case of a large fire.

DEPARTMENT RELIEF FUND.
It affords me pleasure to be able to state that the "Department Relief Fund" is in a flourishing condition, the more so as in my report of last year I felt it to be my duty to refer to the fact that the Fund was exhausted, and to appeal to your Honorable Body to devise some way of creating a fund to be used for relief purposes, as the Fund at that time had an existence only in name, every dollar having been drawn from it and the amount paid monthly by members being insufficient to meet the demands upon it. Since then the idea was conceived of having a benefit at one of the theatres; the idea assumed shape, and the officers and members of the Department, encouraged and assisted by your Honorable Body, believing that an appeal made to the public-spirited citizens of San Francisco would not pass unheeded, perfected arrangements for having a Department Relief Fund Benefit. Tickets were printed and issued to the different Companies of the Department, and the work of disposing of them was entered into by the officers and members of the Department with spirit, and nobly did the generous and liberal citizens respond to the firemen's appeal; the movement hastily conceived and as hastily carried out netted in the neighborhood of three thousand dollars, surpassing the most sanguine expectations at the time the good work was commenced. This, together with the appearance of the theatre on the benefit night, proved conclusively that the generous open-handed liberality which characterized Californians in the palmiest days of our city and State still lived in San Francisco; that San Franciscans were proud of their Fire Department, and recognized its worth and efficiency, and stood ever ready to reward its brave members by providing the means to alleviate their sufferings when disabled from injuries, received while endeavoring to save life and property. I desire to say to my fellow citizens, that the officers and members of the Department will not soon forget the liberal response made to their appeal, and that we will endeavor to prove by our efforts in the future, that we hold it in grateful remembrance, and are not unworthy of the trust reposed in us.

Before concluding my report, I wish to tender for myself and the Department our heartfelt thanks for valuable aid received during the year, which has been of great assistance to the officers and members of the Department, and has contributed materially towards the success which the Department has met with in battling with the fiery element. First, to

THE EXEMPT FIREMEN,
Representatives of the gallant old Volunteer Department, who on numerous occasions during the year have rendered the Department valuable aid, when it was hard pressed by its enemy, and stout hearts and willing hands were worth untold sums. In one case they deserve special praise and mention. At the Harpending Block fire, where the Department struggled against fearful odds, many of the Exempt Firemen were foremost in the fray, vying with members of the Department in their efforts to subdue the flames, displaying that dash and abandon which characterized the Volunteer Department in its balmy days and gave it a world-wide reputation for efficiency and daring.

To the Honorable the Mayor, the Board of Supervisors, and the Fire and Water Committee of the Board of Supervisors, for their prompt attention to all requests made to them to provide for the wants of the Department; for their assistance in matters relating to the Fire Department, and for the cordial and prompt manner in which they have co-operated with me in my efforts to maintain the efficiency of the Department.

To Chief of Police Crowley and his department, for their valuable assistance at fires and for the promptness with which they have responded when called upon to aid the Department.

To Fire Detective McCormick, for the prompt and cheerful manner in which he has always responded when called upon for assistance, and for valuable services rendered by him at fires.

Also, to Mr. Greenwood, Superintendent of the Fire Alarm and Police Telegraph, and his assistants, for the promptness and efficiency displayed by them in their Department.

In conclusion, allow me to tender your Honorable Body my sincere and heartfelt thanks for the earnest support extended to me at all times during the year, without which my efforts would have been vain indeed. My every effort has been heartily seconded by you, and I shall ever cherish with feelings of gratitude the many acts of kindness and expressions of friendship on your part, assuring you that as long as you repose confidence in me by retaining me in the position of Chief Engineer of the Fire Department, I shall spare no effort to prove to you that I am not unworthy of the trust reposed in me.

All of which is most respectfully submitted.

DAVID SCANNELL, Chief Engineer.
San Francisco, July 1st, 1872.

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