Los Angeles herald., 1905-12-17
CHICAGO HOUSE
IS UNBURNABLE
BUILDING Is A FlREPR00F
MODEL
Insurance Companies Make Their
Testing Laboratories Of Indestruc-
tibIe Deslgn-Tell Of Appalling
Loss to Property owners
Special to The Herald.

special TO The Herald.
CHICAGO Dec. 16.-Chcago has the
latest thing i'm unburnable buildings
a model of fireproof construction for
the whole country. This is the new
testing laboratory supported by the
big fire insurance companies. Here
every material and device connected
with the problem of fire prevention
will be tried out and rated. The work
of the laboratories covers everything
from bricks to hose nozzles.
The laboratory building itself, from
cellar to roof, contains nothing that
will burn, affording monumental evil
dence of the fact that { is not neces-
sary that combustible materials should
enter into the structural parts or equip
ment of modern business building.
The walls are of vitrifed brick; cast
iron columns protected by hollow tile
support the steel girders for the floors
and roof. The floors, roof and parti-
tions are of semi-porous hollow terra
Gotta with thick walls. All the open
ings are framed in rolled steel. There
is no plastering in any part of the
building Thirteen different makes of
fireproof window frames and sash have
been used, all of them sheet metal.
All the doors are of filled copper or
steel. Large sections of hollow terra
Gotta form the steps and landings.
The first design for the building
called for "slow burning construc-
tion,' but it was later decided that
the underwriters laboratories, of all
places, ought to be a model of fire
proof design. Then followed the
change of plans in which hollow tile
was substituted for mill construction.
In other words, there was a change
from the kind of construction that
would burn slowly to the kind that will
not burn at all.
Fire Loss $50 Per Family Year
Americans need this lesson in fire.
proof building as well as the aid which
the laboratories will give in passing
upon the value of fire fighting devices
and non-burnable building materials.
The colossal fire loss in the United
States, at the rate of $3.50 900, 900 a
year, is equivalent to tax of $40 on
every American family. The total gold
production of the United States would
pay only one-third of it. Besides the
money loss there is the death loss
last year the fire Moloch claimed a
total of 6672 human lives
One of the most appalling elements
in the fire loss is the number of public
fire traps consumed. Figures for an
average period covering three years
show that in that time there were
destroyd by fire:
427 theaters, 544 halls. 1921 churches,
1852 schools, AT hospitals and asylums,
312 colleges and schools, 43 libraries,
4162 hotels.
The way to stop all this waste is to
build houses that will not burn down.
There is no other way. Conditions are
improving, but only slowly, and Il vast
amount of work remains to be done
and undone before the fire peril will
be materially lessened. outside of New
York city and Brooklyn, according to
statistics collected by the New York
Fire Insurance exchange, there are
only 1890 buildings of fireproof con-
structon-less than 1900 out of thou
sands upon thousands of fire traps.
The only wonder is that the fire loss
in dollars and lives is not even
greater.
Skyscrapers Point the Way
The skyscraper and the great hotels
of New York point the way toward
the era of unburnable buildings and
negligible fire loss. The forms of con-
struction adopted in this class of build
ings after terrible tests prove that the
indestructible house is a possibility.
Build of steel and hollow tile, with
enough stone and cement to hold the
structure together, eliminate inflam-
mabe materials wherever possible, in
stall up-to-date fire fighting apparatus,
and your office building, hotel or dwell
ing house can never become a tomb
for it's inhabitants.
The greatest enemies of fire loss pre-
vention are the Jerry builder on the
one hand, and on the other the man
who does not know what fireproof con-
struction is. 1t costs about ten per
cent more to build fireproof than to
build a burnable structure. For this
ten per cent the speculative builder
is willing to run any risk. His object
1s to get his fire trap off his hands as
soon as possible. But the campaign
oe education carried on by the fire
underwriters. the National Fire Pro-
lection association and by the more en-
lightened municipal building depart
ments, is bearing fruit in many direc-
tions.
People are more and more insistent
upon the fireproof qualities of their
public buildings, and the time is not
far off when the freproof private
dwelling will be as common as the
fireproof hotel and office building.
People who lend money for building
purposes-and without these people
building would practically stop-are
also awakening to the Importance Of
fireproof construction.
State Legislation Demanded
Corrupt and inefficient building de-
partments are also responsible for
much of the cheap and dangerous con-
struction in our cities put up only
to burn down at the first menace by
fire Most of the building codes of our
large cities are antiquated and INSULT
cient to secure safety even if they
were honestly enforced
Realizing this the International So
ciety of Building Inspectors is making
an effort to obtain state Legislation.
The society has drafted a bill fixing
clearly the minimum building precau-
tons against fire for presentation in
all the state legislatures. The argu-
ment back of this movement is that
the only remedy for existing condi-
tons is for the state to impose regu-
9tions upon those cities which are
permitting unsafe building.
Jiu~Jitsu Helps Policeman
n