Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1877-07-04
MlscElANg.
Our Late Fire and Its Lessons,


Our Late Fire and Its Lessons
| To the Editor.
| Our recent calamity has it's lessons
for us, and, with due respect for those
amiablc individuals who blandly re.
fer all such Affections to some inscrut
able decree of Divine Providence,
desire for the benefit of the commu.
nifty, to point those lessons ont, and
to suggest how such conflagrations
can be either prevented or largely
controlled.
In the first place, ii has pleased the
alleged author of those decrees to al
low the existence Of certain class of
persons, who seem not to have sense
enough to distinguish the legal differ
ence between q policy of insurance
and the Westminster catechism. Such
people, by some inscrutable decree,
prevail at fires, and are, l may add,
almost as destructive as fire itself.
One Of these smart Alexanders at
tended promptly on Tuesday morn
ing, planted himself in front of Mr..
Guests store, and, announcing that all
goods saved would be deducted from
the insurance, prohihifed and pre-
vented the removal 0f q dollars
worth of property. The result was a
total loss to Mr.. Guest of some $lO,-
GOO over and above his insurance.
IT is utterly incomprehensible how
any man, with brains enough to con-
troll his spinal column, can possibly
entertain such an idea, and yet,
strange as it is, many people do. AS
an insurance agent Of seventeen years
experience, | wish to set this question
at rest.
A fire policy covers what the assur-
ed loses, not what he saves. Ifa par
ty has $4,000 worth of merchandise
and $4,000 insurance, and saves $685.
600 from the fire, the insurance COM
panies are liable for $4,000, and will
pay it. The companies are liable for
the amount of his loss, up to the
amount of his insurance, and it is en-
tirely immaterial how much he saves,
if his loss is equal to his Insurance.
In this connection l ought to say that
every policy requires the holder to
use all reasonable efforts to save his
property, and should any man lock
up his store and refuse to allow his
goods to be removed, when he could
have saved them or any considerable
portion of them, he could not recover
a dollar of insurance. Insurance
companies are disposed to be much
more liberal with persons who try to
save their property, than with those
who do not. If our people will only
remember this, they will save much
property and will enable the compa-
nies to give them reasonable rates Of
premium. But if the community al
low themselves to be controlled by
the opinions of idiots, and these un-
necessary losses thereby occur, the
companies must and will charge for
the additional risks.
Again, three of our finest, and as
We all thought, safest mercantile
risks, were reduced to ashes i'm three
hours, involving the destruction of
nearly q quarter of a million of prop
erty. Now had these buildings been
properly constructed the fire would
have been confined to the building in
which it originated. But we have a
party wall statute in Iowa which al
lows a person to build half his wall
on his neighbor's ground In my
judgment this is one of tho most Vi
cious laws that ever cursed state.-
1t is temptation to build thin and
insufficient walls.
think an examination Of the busi-
ness portion of this city will disclose
the fact that nine-tenths of the divis-
ion walls in the bushes part of the
city are thirteen-inch, or less.
Now, when you come to place the
joists on such a wall, especially if, as
is usually the case, the joists are ex-
actly opposite each, the ends either
touch, or so nearly SO, as to fire each
other, you have a continuous roof
over the entire block, in which case
a metal roof is worse than shingle,
for the simple reason that you cannot
reach fire through tin. This was cx-
actly the case in the last fire.
Partition walls should be at least
Is inches thick, and the joists should
be far enough apart between the ends
to allow a fire-wall of at least9 inches
in thickness between them, and even
then the joists of adjoining buildings
should never be placed opposite
each other.
Again we ought to have an ordi-
nance regulating the construction of
and no building should be
allowed to be erected in the business
portion of the city except in the man.
ncr provided by the ordinance. This
is the only way these extensive
conilagrations can be prevented, and
inasmuch as the law under which
our city is now incorporated gives the
council full authority in the matter,
il is due to the property owners-to
the community-that they should
promptly and wisely exercise it.
CHAs. II. PHELPS.
burlington Ha,ckeye