New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1909-05-05
LESSONS IN FIRE COST
Startling Deductions Made by
Federal Experts.
.FLIMsY ERECTION BLAMED.

Engineer In Charge Of Geological Sur
vey's Structural Material Labora-
tories Points to Need Of Absolutely
Fireproof BuiIdings-No Other Land
Suffers So Greatly.
Federal experts who are making a
study Of building materials that will
best withstand fire and who are there
fore taking a keen interest in the fire
losses as they are reported for the
whole Of the United States declare
that, in spite Of all efforts toward bet
ter building conditions, the death and
destruction due to fires and conf1agra-
tons in 1909 will eclipse all previous
records, with the exception Of the
years in which the Baltimore and San
Francisco fires occurred.
They point to the fact that in six
teen days of April five big fires in diff
ferent parts of the United States re-
suited in a loss of $e,ooo,o 900, the death
Of twenty persons, the injury Of seven
teen and the rendering homeless of
more than 5000. The greatest of these
fires was at Fort Worth, Tex, result
ing in property loss Of between 49,
100000 and $4,OOO,OOO, and the second
in Importance was at Rochester, N. Y,
with loss of half million dollars.
'The people of the United States
have not yet learned the lesson of the
Baltimore and San Francisco fires"
said Richard L. Humphrey, engineer
in charge of the structural material
laboratories of the United States geo.
logical survey. "Fort Worth's recent
experience, when more than 800 homes
were devoured by the flames, is but
repetition of what has happened in
the past and what will occur in the fu-
ture until American municipalities
wake to the situation and enact legis-
lation which will absolutely prevent
the further construction Of flimsy
buildings that are not freproof.
1T seems difficult to make the peo-
pie believe that in 1907 fires in the
United States cost more than $780,
600 for every day in the year, an
annual tax Of more than SIS for every
man, woman and child in the United
States. We are spending 81 100000
year on new buildings and construc-
ton work, while our fires cost $780,
100000. No other nation has such an
unenviable record as this. Our fires.
are costing from six to eight times as
much per capita as any country in
Europe. By the total cost of fires I re-
fer not only to the actual destruction
100000, but also to the cost of mainte-
nance of fire departments and the
amount Of insurance paid over and
above the money returned to reim-
burse owners of burned buildings.
While we are wasting several times
as much property per capita as Eu-
rope, we are also destroying in these
fires FIVE times as many lives as are
lost in the other countries. In 1905,
according to the United States census,
5000 persons died of burns and per-
haps 10000 were seriously injured.
mo other country suffers so enor-
nous confagration losses as does the
United States, and it is this class of
loss, due to the rapidity with which
fires spread. involving whole blocks
and cities, that requires attention. In
every city and village in the United
States there is ever present the posi-
bility of large loss Of life and property.
'The federal government is directly
interested in this question, because it
Is the owner Of buildings valued at
more than half a billion dollars, which
are not insured, and is spending more
than $20,O0O,OOO each year for new
structures. This building and con-
struction work is all intended to be Of
a permanent nature. It involves in
terests Of such magnitude that the
government can afford to take no risks
concerning either the methods of con-
struction or the materials to be used.
1t is therefore necessary that its archi-
tects and engineers have definite infor-
nation concerning the fire resisting
qualities of the different materials of
construction to the end that the gov
eminent buildings may be properly
safeguarded from fire within and with
out
Carrying out this idea, the geolog-
zeal survey, through it's technologic
branch, some time ago completed a
series of preliminary fire tests of build
ing materials, which will soon be
printed by the government in the form
OF bulletin. The building materials
were placed in a furnace, where gas
flames were forced by blast of air
against one side of the material. After
two hours, in which the material was
heated to the noint exnacted in a con.