The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-09-16
WANT A FIRE ORDINANCE,
Architects Prepare Petition
to the Board of Super
ViSOrS.
NO OFFICIAL COPY EXTANT.
San Francisco Has Been Without
an Accessible Fire Law
Since 1888.

The City of San Francisco has been with
out an official copy of the fire ordinance
since 1888, and ever since then architects,
builders and owners of buildings have
been compelled to worry along without
getting tangled up in some forgotten law
by the means of scrapbooks of fire orders
as kept by district engineers of the Fire
Department. But this condition of affairs
has at last become so irksome and unsatis-
factory that the San Francisco CHAPTER of
the American Institute of Architects has
determined to petition the Board of Super
visors for relief, and press its claims until
the municipality has fire ordinance that
will be accessible to everybody.
Numerous cases are cited to show how
hardships have been inflicted on people
engaged in the building trades. Scarcely
a contractor or architect in San Francisco
knows when some amendment to the fire
ordinance of 1888 is being violated. Ere.
quently the only knowledge of such occur
renee comes to them through the verbal
report of district engineer inspecting
building in course of construction, for the
reason that only the engineer is familiar
WITH GD6 law IelSISlCe 10 Ills
scrapbook, made up of clippings of printed
orders from the official paper.
On one recent occasion the architect,
contractor and mechanics were arrested
for building turret, which the district
engineer concluded was forbidden bay
window. There was nothing to show that
it was a turret-in the engineers mind
and no consolation could be received from
his scrapbook. Another time a district
an ho
cause he saw something wrong in the
brickwork. There was no written order to
that effect, and next carpenter, ignorant
of what had taken place, went to work in
the house. He was promptly arrested and
compelled to deposit $40 cash bail to get
out OF jail: And yet he was gully of no
breach of law. Simply the Fire Warden
told one contractor, who told another man,
but the carpenter had not been informed
of the order, nor officially notified to stop
work.
Still another incident has been quoted in
this connection. A contractor built iron
fre-eScapeS on a house according to in
structions from the Fire Department. just
when the contract was finished a warden
told him that the rungs of the ladder
should be fat, and being round the whole
thing had to come down. Why such pro-
vision or specification was not made in the
original instructions could not be learned,
but subsequently the Fire Warden STUN
bled across it in his clipped amendments.
AS a rule these cases have been dismissed
in court, and many have never been heard
of, as Chief Sullivan has, with due appre-
citation of the situation and regards for the
rights of property-owners, builders and
architects, invariably decided in their
favor. In many instances he found that
mistakes had been made even by the war
dens, who got lost in the antiquities of the
scrapbook orders.
About two years ago the sum OF $500 or
$1,000 was appropriated to pay for drafting
a new ordinance. But though the matter
was placed in the hands of the architect of
the Fire Wardens no ordinance has ever
appeared-at least in print. The question
was allowed to drop out of sight, and
meantime the situation has been growing
more and more annoying. With a new
class of modern structures rising UP in San
Francisco and new ideas coming into con-
struction, the old ordinance, of which
there is no official copy, is altogether in
adequate, and with the patchwork of sub
sequent orders, wholly unintelligible.
Looking toward immediate relief the
architects will present the following petit
ton to the Board of Supervisors to-day:
The Honorable Board of Supervisors of the Citv
and County Of San FrdnciSco-GENTLEMEN The
San Francisco Chapter of the American Insti-
tute of Architects begs respectfully to bring to
your notice the very grave hardships inflicted
on the members OF their profession and of the
building trades, by the present state of the or
dinance regulating the construction of build
lngs in this City.
There has actually been no official COPY of
the order in question since 1888. Although
many changes and additions have been made
in 1t since, architects and builders are strictly
required to conform with the rules of the order
in question, but the only means they have of
learning what these rnles are is by personal
inquiry from the Board of Fire Wardens, Tor a
study of the last eight years files OF the official
paper.
This evil has been brought before former
Boards OF Supervisors and the present chief of
the Fire Department, Mr.. Sullivan more than
three years ago held conferences on it with a
committee OF this chapter. complete order
to replace the present piecemeal I'd often
ambiguous rules were prepared by those
gentlemen, and the then board voted q sum
for its drafting by the architect of the Fire
Werdens. For some reason, however, the order
has never appeared in print, and no copy can
be obtained anywhere.
We respectfully urge on your honorable
board the urgent necessity of having the order
of justice to all connected with the building
trades, who are now constantly in danger OF
arrest and other annoyances under the in
accessible provisions of the building order.
The undersigned architects join in this
request, which is respectfully laid before your
honorable board.
The petition will be circulated in the
earlier part of the day for signatures of the
architects, nearly all of whom have deter
mined to sign it, being in hearty sympathy
with the agitation.