Segundino Darguea to General Commander of the District of Guayaquil, February 4, 1871

D.

Your appreciated communication No. 41, under date of 28th of the past month, was duly received at this department, explaining that the “fire regulations” only impose upon the firemen for failure of service the penalty of fines and arrests, and this corps, being like the national guard, and destined only for fire service by the necessity there is for them in that city, you inquire if the punishment of fines and arrests should be extended only to the four consecutive failures of which the law of national guards speaks, or has the same penalty to be continued indefinitely the same, even when they exceeded that number, urging at the same time that the active national guard, in time, will be in worse condition than the fire corps. His excellency the President of the republic has resolved that, considering the fire corps as a national guard, the Ecuadorians enlisted in it, who fail in attendance to exercise four consecutive times without a verified just cause, shall be enlisted in the army, it being understood that these failures are when in case of fire they do not repair to lend immediate aid.