New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-06-13
FIREPROOF.

One or two of our esteemed coutemporaries
| certainly without any Ill Will but with conspicu-
Gus inaccuracy, have given their readers to I'M
derstand that The Tribune Building came near
being destroyed by fire on Monday night and
that the lives of it's occupants were in serious
danger. If In this case ''freproof construction
had been of the too familiar kind both those
results might have followed but the fact is
| that neither was even remotely threatened The
IRE broke out presumably IN consequence of a
smokers carelessness, in room on the fifth
floor occupied by our tenant The Morning
Journal" and filed with nf1ammabe material
1t spread swiftly to two connecting rooms. also
used by The Journal" but there the incombus-
ube partitions performed the service for which
they were designed and the flames could make
no further progress but were thus restricted to
the immediate premises in which they orig
mated, excepting that the draught through
shattered windows carried them up the exterior
OF the building and into single room on the
floor above. Within, open transoms allowed a
dense smoke to pour into the Railways and I'D
the main elevator shaft so that The Tribune's
employees on the upper floors found it desirable
to leave their work for about half an hour and
go down to the street in the rear elevator
which runs between freproof walls without
exits except at the top and bottom
So much for what occurred in parts of the
building to which the flames did not and could
not reach. In the rooms where 1t began and
stopped the fire was intense and did not burn
itself out until 1t had made its way clear to the
solid brick walls which fixed its limits Then it
went out because it had no power to 90 on Rut
we fully agree with the insurance experts that
the buildings in NewYork are extremely few
and far between which could have stood such
test one-haf so well. In the rooms which the
flames swept they were so intense that parts of
the low marble wainscoting on which they
played would crumble yesterday under q slight
pressure Of ones hands, and from that circum-
stance it may easily be imagined what havoc
they would have wrought not merely In con-
fessed finder box, but in a multitude of build
ings that look solid and are advertised as safe
The fre was accidental in its origin but there
was no accident In its confinement to narrow
range. This is not our first experience of the
kind-not the first searching test to which The
Tribune Building has been subjected and proved
amply equal. A few years ago a fire broke out
in the quarters of our own City Department
and did not stop until it had consumed all the
furniture and licked the walls clean but on
that occasion not even the smoke was trouble
some TO men working on the same floor and
tenants on floors below knew nothing about if
untll IL was all over, unless they happened TO
run across fireman going upstairs On the
whole we think we have good reason for salts
faction in the conscientious Judgment which
many years ago. at a time when present recula
lions and demands were unknown. reouired
that The Tribune Building should be fireproof
IN TACT as well as in name, and for contentment
with the large extra cost such construction in
vowed we cannot guarantee tenant against
the natural consequences of carelessness within
limit for Whit ah
confidently share the opinion of the Fire De-
| partment and the insurance companies that The
Tribune Building cannot burn down.
In conclusion, we heartily and gratefully
acknowledge many expressions and manifesto
tions of kindness from neighbors and friends
who thought that a really slight inconvenience
might prove serious, and improve the oppor-
tunty to assure all concerned that we are nros-
porous and happy.