Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1907-09-13
Washinqton tandard
OLYMPIA, WASH.
lDIDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER IS. 1907.
Fire Traps and Powder Houses.

The alarm of fire Sunday night
like the late disaster at Shelton. car
ricd with it a warming quite a> in
prrS>iy". although unattended 10y
the heart -rt.nding results that make
the former lesson the longer rcnrm-
brr,.d
1t is we'll To ponder the admoni
tion> afforded 10y experience. and rs
the memorable Chicago fire in ISL,
which burned l. 900 homes. covered
an area OF 2.0OU acres of closely con-
ncctcd buildings and resulted in a
loss of $2o0. 600, WI0. proved to bc Il
blessing in disguise when it resulted
in a much hrttcr-built city. who will
dispute the violent presumption that
the late disaster may. if the warning
is not lost, result in safe conStruc-
tl"n and ample safety appliances
in the SHAPE of exits and fire escapes.
which will save many times the lives
destroyed in that dreadful expert
encc?
The alarm was caused 10y Il lively
blaze of combustiblcs against wooden
walls inside of which large supply
OF powder and dynamite are continu-
ally stored. These combustibles are
kept in old shacks, on the abandoned
Long wharf. at the foot of Main
street. Had this Old building been
ignited, it is safe to say that the
whole lower part of town would have
been virtually destroyed and doubt
less many lives lost. And we now
and shall ever, insist that some better
place should be found, further from
human habitation. to store such
dangerous explosives.
With reference to fire traps, it may
be noted that we have an admirable
ordinance, which we reprint in full,
passed in 1893, that seems to possess
every element for affording ample
protection to life, if it only be en-
forced. 1t provides for fire escapes,
manner of construction and penalties
for failure to provide them, on all
buildings of more than two stores
in height. Why is it dead letter
on the statute-book? Why, when we
have the counterparts of the Webb
Hotel in our midst, is q day or a
week allowed to intervene before
they are supplied?
The Jefferson hotel, with sixty
families occupying flats in its three
stories, a wooden building; the I'm
ion Block at times occupied; now
vacant, but ready for a tenant, the
Mitchell Hotel, largely constructed
of wood, with single escape in the
rear that might be wholly inaccessi-
BILE to many dodgers; the Kneeland,
with a single fire escape on its north
side; the Odd Fellows Temple with
but one, and the Carlton with none,
there does not seem to be q COM
pliance with law in any particular.
Those that have recognized the pre-
vision, in form and material of con-
structiOn, seem to have been oblivious
of the provision of Sec. 6, that
Every building having fifty rooms
or more above the first story must
have an additional escape for each
thirty additional rooms, or fraction
OF not less than twenty rooms" All
the owners of these buildings are
amply able financially to comply with
the law, and in view of the late dis
aster will no doubt do so at the
earliest possible date, and thus avert
a condition for a fearful loss of life,
which is only restrained by the mer-
ciful decree of Providence.
The theater escapes are delusion
and o snare. The loss of life at the
Iroquois disaster, few years ago,
was not on account of want of means
of exit, but the panic which ensued,
and the Cutting of the means pro-
vided, which resulted in the piling up
o mass of humanity in every passage
way provided for escape, which was
as certain death as the fire upon
those impounded by barricade of hui
man bodies. The long fight of mar
row wooden steps on the theater are
about the least effective device for
safety, from the gallery, in the third
story. That part of the house is
generally filled with boys, who are
easily panic-stricken, and are, under
excitement, erratic in their move
ments. Those narrow steps afford
just such a means for disaster as did
the IrOquois, for it is safe to say that
not a dozen boys would successfully
descend those steps without a STUN
BILE, which means fall and that the
piling of others behind them, and
that would cause spectacle of a
stream of human beings falling like
q cataract over the frail wooden
hand-rails, a distance of from ten to
forty feet to the ground. Such fire.
escapes only deceive the people into
q fancied security and prepare the
way for as great cause for dread
as the fire could possibly create. A
system of chutes would be far better
than those dizzy flights of steps, for
it would safely land a string of peo-
pie on terra trina without possibly
greater injury than abrasion.
The STANDARD expresses the SIM
cere hope that our City Council will
n;uo 10th <hoco c,nnoc<:opC Tho 81