Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-03-06
The Prevention of Fires

so constructed that fire cannot read
lily eat a flue-hole through it from
within or without. If there is a sky
light it should be made of wire glass,
Or glass half an inch thick. Such glass
does not break at once from heat be-
low, and does not so readily let in a
firebrand or a casual skyrocket.
Whatever else is left undone, If there
is back stairway from the kitchen,
safeguard your home against the igno-
rance of the average servant by pro-
viding a self-closing metal door at the
top and bottom. 1t is a wise precau-
ton also to line, such a stairway with
noncombustible material. That kitchen
stairway may be your only fire escape
some night
In fact, anything which is done to
make the cooking department like a
fire-containing box is a great addition
to home safety noncombustibls
ceiling or a concrete floor adds to the
margin of safety. A metal ventilator
hood over a stove is also an excellent
safeguard, provided the vent pipe goes
directly into flue and does not com.
N.
Closing Up the Dangerous Cracks.
The individual rooms as we'll as
the halls of a house should be treated
on the box principle. The fewer the
holes for escape, and the harder the
floor, the ceiling, the walls and the
doors are for fire to gnaw through,
the greater the chance of keeping the
fire in single room and of drowning
1t with a bucket of water or fire
extinguisher. Whatever is used for
room Innings, even if it is only wood,
the tighter the walls and the freer
they are from cracks and knot-holas,
the better If they are of plaster, ev-
cry hole in that plaster is an invita-
ton for tiny fire to get into the
walls and own the house. Even
mouse hole in corner or crack
about the Dashboard may lead match
flame to follow gentle draft into the
walls or under the flooring. In other
words, a few cents worth of plaste:,
a little weatherstrip on cracks, even
a little putty may mean chance to
save the entire house, or to spare the
ripping open of doors and walls A
closed mouse-hole may also mean that
rats and mice have less chance to
carry matches to build their nests in
the floors. Mice and rats, contrary to
popular belief, do not gnaw at heads
of matches to eat the sulphur, but
they do chew up match sticks into
wood fibre as nest material. Some
times they gnaw too close to the head
and set the match off, generally in g.
regular Undertook Matches dragged
along floors by mice sometimes ignite
by friction.
| Any real opening connecting room
with that above it is hazardous. One
of the common forms Of this is TN
opening through the floor so that a
stovepipe may heat a bedroom above.
This is prohibited by the building
laws of great cities, for the reason
that fire below would surely take
this same avenue for heating the room
above. a dumb-waiter shaft is such
an opening unless it is properly con
structed A dumbwaiter shaft should
be fireproof, and have tightly fitting
; selfclosing metal doors at all open.
ings. These doors should be Kept
closed The dumb-waiter shaft is real.
ly just a form Of chimney between
floors, except that it opens into the
house and not outside of it. as O. well
regulated chimney should There is a
big word of warning for fiat jewellers
in this, especially for those who leave
the waiter door open for ventilation or
conversation.
Emphasis has been placed especiel
ly on keeping fire out of walls and
floors which are not fireproof Ct
course, a small fire can do little with
solid brick wall. For this reason
many people, in erecting large frame
buildings, particularly summer hotels
divide the structure into two or more
separate boxes by brick walls at least
twelve inches thick, running from the
ground through the roof. These walls
are closed with metal doors and fire
cannot readily get through them &c
the other sections of the house.