A distressing or amusing incident—depending upon your point of view, occurred at the fire yesterday afternoon in which Albert Hibbard, an enthusiastic member of the local fire department, played the leading part.
Albert was in charge of the nozzle. A crowd of about 50 white and colored assistants helped in pulling the long and heavy hose up to a point in front of the building. The water was turned on and Albert began playing the stream on the fire. The crowd of helpers, stretched out along the length of the hose watched his work with acute interest.
Feeling the need of getting a little closer to the building, Albert shouted to his assistants to “let him have some more slack.”
They gave it to him. They gave it to him with a vengeance. Firmly grasping the hose they rushed forward. Albert was jammed up against the wall of the house and the stream from the hose almost drowned him. Hose pilled up around him.
“Pull ‘er back! Pull ‘er back!” he shouted frantically.
Those men were there to work and carry out orders. Albert had told them to pull the hose back. They proceeded to do so. Doing an about-face movement they galloped at full speed directly away from the fire. Unprepared for the sudden movement, Albert was knocked off his feet. Landing on the back of his neck, he was yanked through a puddle of water and over several timbers that happened to be lying around. Yelling lustily, he managed to halt the retreat and succeeded in scrambling to his feet again. After a second in which to regain his breath and his feet, he motioned for the men to carry the hose closer to the fire again.
Forward they rushed, like the charge of the Light Brigade. Determination to do or die shown in their faces. Albert was carried along, hanging desperately to the hose, until he crashed up against the side of the building again.
But this was going too far. It was going so far that it was beginning to grow monotonous. Albert dropped the hose and expressed his opinion of the way his corps of assistants were doing things. He explained to them that when he wanted more hose, he didn’t want to have it hung around his neck. Not by any means. With great tact and clear enunciation, he also conveyed upon them the impression that when he wanted the hose hauled back, he didn’t want it to be taken to the opposite end of the city.
After that, everything worked beautifully.
From page 6 of The New Bern Sun-Journal, Thursday afternoon, Dec. 7, 1922
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