, 1889-08-10
RISKS A FIREMAN RUNS.
So Called Fire Proof Buildings Impart
Special Grounds for Fear.

Special Grounds for Fear.
If there is any one thing that dis
heartens n fireman more Than another
it is 10 be told that a building on which
he is at work is a modern fire proof
structure.
The speaker was an old fireman.
who is now serving on the insurance
patrol, and he had some reasons to
back up this somewhat startling asser-
ton.
1t may sound strange 70 hear of a
ireman's being at work on a fire
proof building, but fires in so called
fire proof buildings are by no means
unusual, and everybody knows that
some of these fires are the very ones
hat result in frightful loss of life.
Their size and height doubtless has
much to do with this, while a sense of
fancied security frequently leads to
gross carelessness on the part of the
inmates.
But while it is only these occasional
holocausts hat attract the attention of
the general public, firemen have TO
risk life and limb almost daily, and
the manning of a mar for the rest of
his days is dismissed with the merest
mention in the newspapers. 1t is the
unseen danger of an ordinary fire that
hlCh ltdT, TdllGT llluu lnC executing
emergencies of a great conflagra-
ton, and it is because some of these
modern structures are so prolific in
these unseen dangers that they are so
much dreaded.
A peculiarly dangerous feature in
the construction of many large bust
ness buildings is the use of iron pill
lars, which frequently rise in series
n above the other from foundation
to roof. These are especially common
in wholesale establishments covering
several ordinary lots, and sometimes
take the place of inside walls alto
gether. OF course that is all right
where the floors are of iron, cement
and thing, but you won't find such
floors except in a few large Office or
bank buildings.
The mere fact that you see iron floor
beams used in the construction is no
indication that it will be really fire
proof. Unless the floors are filled in
with some non-combustible material,
the iron beams are manifestly not of
the slightest importance in preventing
the passage of the fire, while the iron
pillars are a source of great and posi-
tive danger. The trouble with them
is that just as soon as a hot blast of
flame strikes them they expand I'M
equally, warp, crack, and then comes
down the entire structure. And it is
all down SO quickly hat the poor fire
man has no warning, and precious lit
tie chance to get out.
The extensive use of iron in such
buildings at present is in fact a source
of danger all around. Even when
pillars are not used, inside walls are
supposed to be strengthened at every
story with iron braces. In this case
the effect is similar, and as soon as the
heat has warped the braces out of
shape, the whole interior is liable to
fall unexpectedly.
As regards pillars, good solid ones
of hard wood are much better than
iron. They will burn, of course, but
it takes a long time TO burn three or
four inches right into hard wood, and
so long as the core remains solid, the
floors are safe. That gives the firemen
a chance to work, and unless the place
is otherwise a regular finder box, a
well equipped fire department will save
the building.
The massive Office buildings now SO
common in lower Broadway and in
Nassau and Wall streets, are really
fire proof, and although there will
sometimes be a mighty hot fire among
the furniture in a particular Office or
suite of rooms, it can never extend
from floor TO floor.
Another very deceptive style of
building is the iron front, of which so
many were put up fifteen years or so
ago. A peculiar danger of these is
that in falling the front does not come
down piecemeal, but falls like a sheet
of solid metal. Half a dozen reporters
had a somewhat narrow escape a year
and a half ago at that big million dol
lar fire on Broadway, near Prince
street, from this. The iron front of
M of these buildings fell over as
straight as a pole, without either bend
ing or breaking, until it struck the
ground and the building on the other
side of the street.
The reporters were standing on the
opposite sidewalk, only about twenty
feet to one side, and all the telegraph
wires over there were brought down
on their heads. Some of them had
their hats badly battered, and their
ears or noses scratched.-New York
News.