Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-03-26

munities. in Europe, they have got well
over their ptoneerdom and lumber has
authorities have had more forethought
and realized the necessity Of better con-
structiOn, So that the general average OF
the buildings in cities, towns and villages
Is infinitely less inf1ammable than is the
average here. But from that It must no,
be deduced that the science Of building is
carried to greater perfection there than
here. That seems an anomalous condi-
ton, but it's a fact nevertheless that oul
architects and engineers know a great
and practice 1t to a far higher degree OF
perfection than do the architects and en-.
gineers OF Europe. They really have
nothing to compare with our superior
buildings. Take. for ipsance. the Singer
tower. in New York. and. regardless Of
its height. there Is nothing in Europe te
compare with 1t in the way Of fire-resist.
Ing qualities. The trouble with us is tina,
there are 50 few of those buildings. We
have something like $4,000. 900 structures
there are but 5000 in which even the
slightest effort has been made at flre
prevention! 1t is our average construc-
ton that Is SO poor and that makes suca
bad showing compared with Europe
You can readily see that in q city COM
posed Of buildings that are not freprooi
but that are comparatively incombusti'
BILE the fire hazard is much less than II
Is In city of firetraps. with q few per.
rect buildings scattered here And there
And. too. In order to resist fire those
freproof buildings have to be superla-
lively perfect because there is so much
fuel all around them that q fire attack
against them is vigorous in the extreme
In the European cities the big and i'm.
portant buildings need not to be so per-
fectly constructed. because the danger OF
fire from within is always the minimum
and the danger OF fire from without is
not very great on account Of the superior
general quality Of construction. There
1t is seldom that a fire gets beyond the
building In which ii originates. Here
in spite Of our splendid fire departments
and there are none superior to them, for
none have the practice and the expert
ence they have-fres frequently extend to
neighbortng buildings, entire blocks and
indeed whole sections.
Applying the Remedy.
Municipalities, states and even the
country at large are beginning to realize
the gravity OF this fire waste and that
something drastic has to be done toward
fire prevention. The great trouble is that
whatever We may do now can simply be
an sustaining from adding fresh fuel to
burn because we have received such a
heritage of combustible buildings that
1t Will yet be many years before those
old firetraps will have all been destroyed
or torn down to be replaced with better
buildings. But a beginning has to be
made some time, and most of our cities
have so revamped their building regula-
lions that. at least within certain dis
tricts. nothing of an inflammable nature
may be erected. But that is not enough.
because Immediately outside Of those dis
tricts we are permitting firetrap construc-
ton that in turn will be the inheritance
of our successors and will be in longest
ed districts and prove almost insuperable
barriers to real progress. The thing to
do is to absolutely prohibit inflammable
construction, the use OF wood, in the
structural parts of buildings erected any
where within the Jurisdiction of city