Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-09-19

The bill creating the Office of Fire Mar
shall for Savannah has passed the Senate
and House. and only awaits the signature
Of the Governor to make il a law. Savan-
nah will then have an officer that she has
long needed. The conscientious discharge
Of the duties Of such an officer VIII great
~ benefit the community IN the Hi
portant thing Of fires; removing HOln
them the element Of mystery, SO Tar as II
is possible. bv means Of rigid eXamlna-
tions.
We have refrained from any extended
notice Of this bill because we desired first
10 see whether it would become law.
We are now satisfied on that point. We
have no doubt the Governor will sign the
bill. We will, therefore, point out a few
OF the benefits expected to flow from the
office the bill creates. A Fire Mar
shall occupies about the same rela-
ton TO mysterious fires in COM
munity that a Coroner does to mystic
rious deaths. The duty of both IS to in
vestigate and find if possible the
causes. The duty of Fire Marshal IS to
examine into the origin of fires. He has
rests if he sees proper. In other words,
he can do about what a Justice OF the
Peace can do when making a prelimina-
~ examination of criminal charges.
Officers of the law must obey his
orders when given in matters in
which he has Jurisdiction. The law re-
quires him to keep a record Of every in
vestigatiOn he makes. Ii is not matter
of discretion with him what fires he shall
investigate. He must investigate all and
keep a record of all. This is brief state
meEt Of a Fire Marshals duty and authOri-
". The necessity tor such an officer is
apparent. Without him there is no way
i'm which a legal investigation OF the cause
of a ire can be had except by charging
some one with the crime OF arson. An
investigation Of a charge of this kind IS
attended with delays, and is gener-
ally unsatisfactory. In fact, it Is
not often safe to make the
charge because Of the difficulty of sus-
tanning it, and prosecutions are apt to fol-
low false or UnsUstained charges. There
can be nothing of this sort in an investi-
CATION by a Fire Marshal. No charges are
preferred and no arrests made until the
investigation is over, and not then unless
sufficient evidence has been discovered.
The Fire Marshal takes the responsibility
of arresting the suspected parties. There
are several benefits which flow from the
office. one Of them is that there is less
incendiarism. and, consequently, there Is
not so great destruction OF property.
When it is known that the origin of every
fire will be inquired into with as much per-
sistency and tenacity as is displayed in
hunting down a murderer there Will be
less disposition to burn property TO obtain
the insurance or for any other purpose.
Another benefit is that crime is checked.
Few will take the risk Of burning a build
ing when discovery and punishment are
almost certain. Another benefit that
those who favor the law mention is that in
proportion as fires are checked property
that Yields taxes 10 the city Will he
preserved. This last mentioned benefit
is infinitessimal. if il exists at all. our
observation is that in a prosperous city
much better buildings are, as a rule, erected
Immediately in place of those destroyed.
We are confident that Savannah would be
vastly improved if a good many of the
shanties scattered throughout the most de-
sirabie portions Of the city were out of the
way. Their sites would soon be Occu-
pied by buildings that would be credIta-
ble To- the city. II Is alleged that seven
tenths Of the destructive fires are from
unknown causes. This allegation if it be
fact, and we have no reason
to doubt it. is in itself ample reason for
creating the office Of Fire Marshal. OF
course the insurance companies chiefly,
viii be benefited by the creation of this
office. All property owners, however,
are interested TO a greater or less
extent in it, particularly those who are
rot insured The Committee of the
Board of Underwriters, who have had the
bill in charge from the beginning will
keep an eye on it until the Governors
signature is attached TO it.