Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-03-26
FIRE LOSSES IN AMERICA
SENSELESS WASTE BY FLAMES
:. IN UNITED STATES CITIES.
Destruction Of Property. and Great
Cost Of Fire Departments Due to
Cheap and Poor Building.

F. W. Fitzpatrick In National Magazine.
We have reason to be proud of the
phenomenal growth Of our American
cities, the beauty of their buildings and
the vast volume Of building construction
that is yearly carried on in the process of
that growth. But a careful analysis
shows us that that great volume of build
ing is not all growth, but is, to very
great extent indeed. the replacing of
buildings that have been destroyed by
fire. And that destruction, a most sense
less and cruel waste, has had a proper
tiOnate increase. year by year. far in ex-
cess Of the pro rata of our new buildings
or indeed of many other details of our
rapid growth. In this country we deal In
big figures and 1t would almost seem as il
we were as proud of our appalling waste
as we are of our mammoth productions.
At least one would Judge so by the COM
placency with which we contemplate q
drain upon our resources that would be
deemed positively intolerable in any
other country.
the year 1908 are now pretty nearly COM
plete. Let us see what that year has
meant in this fire matter. In the forty
leading cities new buildings and repairs
to old ones building construction. reached
a total value of $478, 100000 In that year.
or a grand total in all the cities and
towns of 500, OOO, OOO-the biggest year we
ever had i'm our history. 1866. showed q
total of 1867 100000. Now. then. during
the same period we permitted to be de-
the value of $2lS. 900. Incidentally. the
reader will please remember that in most
transactions where closes" occur. those
losses resolve themselves generally into
matters where one man loses the other
gains. in more scientific affairs fuel, for
instance, is consumed but produces steam.
power They say that nothing is utterly
lost. but we also know that in this fire
proposition nothing is left but ashes and
smoke. 1t is not an exchange. The de-
struction of value is absolute, for so far
We have exceedingly little use for ashes,
and smoke has not yet been turned into
anything commercially or scientifically
valuable. Add to the value of property
destroyed the cost of maintaining fire de-
partments, fire-fghting apparatus. high
water pressure. city and private efforts at
stopping fire when once it has started,
something like $500. 100000.
Then in a further effort to recoup our
selves after fire has laid waste our prop
erty. we have gambled with the insurance
companies in a bet that our buildings
paid those companies in fire insurance
premiums $316,OOO,OOO. They have paid
us back in adjusted losses $135. 100000, so
that the difference between those two
sums. 1881 100000. Is the amount we have
paid those companies for the privilege Of
getting back a little over half of the
value of the property we have permitted
to be destroyed by fire. Applying the
paid losses of $135. 600 on the burned
value of $21S, 100000, the net loss in prop
erty value was So. 600. the cost Of
fire protection" of all kinds was $780,
10000 and the amount we gave the insur-
ance companies to guarantee us some re-
endorsement for our losses was $1sf. OOO.-
COO so that the total of destroyed values
and incidental costs Of fire for the year
that we might cali destruction with the
new buildings added. $51O.OOO.OOO. or what
we might call production. and the result
is not one of which we have any reason
to be proud.
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