The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1881-06-28
FIRE.

pSiSoA AN '" -" "'S t''
danger of fires until they have been bulnet
out. There is nothing striklngly new in Til.
somewhat antiquated platitude; neither i.
there in the fact that death will sooner q
later overlake the now living. But while
there are many who profess to be prepared tc
meet the latter, we have yet to see the person
who is fully prepared to be burned out Of
home or business. Men are too apt to view q
consuming fire as they do death; as one OF
those occurrences that may happen in the faI
distant future. 1t is pleasanter to contempla G
both at a comfortable distance than ii is to
look upon them as a present possibility.
Hence, the majority of the people go about
their usual avOcations attending to ali those
little details that enter into and aid III the
building up of their business, being careful
to seize every advantage that will further tileil
enterprises, and wo. king early and late Ia
Keep them moving in the direction of profit
and ultimate wealth. This is done by neil
who are considered sirewd and careful. Blu
the exercise Of ordinary carefulness does not
-'itrd against the possibility of fire, and these
S"aS hASh Y IL III VI IllC
weary toll of years reduced to ashes in an
hour.
While it is not commended that it IS within
the range Of possibilities to prevent alto
gether the breaking ont of fires it is commended
that their frequency may be lessened by the
observance OF the ordinary rules that COM
mon caution suggests. Every one knows that
if the cause be removed the effect ceases to
exist. If people knew the several causes of
fire it is reasonable to suppose they would
guard againt those causes. Unquestionably
many do know them and guard against them
but such person may be at the mercy Of his
neighbor who does not kno and therefore
does not intelligently protect himself from
loss. For the information of the %Eeighbor
and many others who may not know the
prominent cause Of fires we publish below a
table which gives the aggregate number,
traced to the causes named, in New York
l, 1881. We are indebted to the Commercial
bulletin of that city for the table
Accidental, or not ascertained .............. BIG
CarelessnesS of occupants with matches,
lights, cigars, hot ashes. eLc.............4 $50
Children playing with matches, elc......... SS7
Defective fues, furnaces, etc................ 6S7
Defective arrangement of stoves, etc. . 275
Escaped gas igniting. ....... 34j
Fat, varnish. etc. boiling over............ 323
foul cnl1nlleyS... E. ....l,@
Heat from CRATES, steam pipes, etc,......... 80
Hot Goals from stoves and CRATES 49,. -. 135
Incendiary or supposed incendiary ....... 347
Kerosene oil lamps falling PSI
Malicious mischief. ................... $50
Not ascertained -. STD
Overheated stoves, pipes, etc ................ o5S
Sparks from chimneys, engines etc ........ 800
Spontaneous combustion go. hi
Vaporo of napltha, gasoline, etc ............ IS
Window curtains, etc, fired by gas jets Il. 90
OF these fires enumerated above-in the
aggregate about 17,O00-it will be seen hal
carelessness was the principal cause. In fact
it is difficult to assign the great bulk OF them
to anything else than carelessness or the lack
that with a reasonable degree of vigi.
lance on somebody's part, nine-tenths of all
these fires might have been prevented, At a
it is stated, of over $45 900 900. If
New York is the only place in which people
are careless this article might end here, but
unfortunately the same recklessness or care
lessness exists in every other community, and
lnquestionably it exists in Butte as much as
in any other place of its size in the country.
Butte has not been burned dow must
ott,ihntaH n, ~ Jnr ,,,,,, ,: h. . - |
absence Of carelessness. The larger number
IF its houses are of wood, and their construc-
;ion is faulty. In many of them stove pipes
run in all directions through them and the
customary precautions have not in every case
been observed III protecting the surrounding
wood. These facts when considered
N connection with another fact
hat the light, combustIhle nature of the ma
,erlal used in the building of houses here,
render their ignition possible under circun-
where more durable buildings would
not be affected, call for the exercise of more
han the usual precautions to guard against
ire. The warm, dry summer days will soon
be here, ard unless our citizens exercise that
eternal vigilance, which is tie price of ex-
from the visits Of the fire fend as
we'll as the price of liberty, they will wake
up some bright morning to find that they
lave traded off several hundred thousand
dollars worth of city property for worthless
heaps of ashes.
a new way to raise funds to build school
houses has been recently nracticad in Hart