On Thursday evening some ten or a dozen members of the Rushden Fire Brigade attracted considerable attention along the High-street by going through a series of drills in the use of the fire escape and other means of leaving the upper storeys of buildings. Under the direction of Captain Knight, the firemen, more of whom were in uniform, but wearing caps in place of helmets, wheeled the escape down the street as far as Mr. Powell’s shop. Here a drill was gone through in the use of the jumping sheet, several boys mounting the escape ladder and jumping into the sheet from the top of Mr. Powell’s premises. The escape was next raised to the third storey window over Mr. H. T. Roberson’s shop at the corner of Victoria-road. Secretary Turner was then lowered from the window to the ground by means of the “rope cradle,” two boys being then lowered from the same height in the same way. The next halt was at the Coffee Tavern, where two or three boys jumped safely into the sheet held by the firemen, the leap being taken from one of the windows over the door.

A large crowd gathered at each place, and all the movements were followed with the closest attention.