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

4 BY G. w. Wharton and H. e. G. Raj
| ney, Insurance Engineer, New York
Fire Insurance Exchange, in The
1 Worlds Work.
Simple Methods BY Which Fire May
BE Prevented.
/ (The average American citizen
loses nearly ten dollars year by fire
| to one dollar lost by the average
4 European. The nation, the state, and
the municipality are partly to blame.
fbut the real blame rests on the citi
zen himself. 1t is an evil that must
4 be corrected. These articles are AN
| effort to bring the matter home to the
4 individual, and to show him how to
/ go about correcting 1.-THE Editor)
Six hundred and fifty thousand
pieces Of property burned and fire
loss Of two and one-half billion dol
lars, is the record Of fire damage in
the United States for period Of TWEEN
ty-one years, according to the Chron-
icle fire tables. In the list of the prop
erty burned, there were 170,949 homes.
The saddest part of all was that III
these fires hundreds of lives were
/ lost-how many the tables do not say,
for this is not the concern of the fire
insurance Experts The next worst
feature. however. is the fact that, OF
the total loss, $266340,05S was directly
attributable to carelessness and mex
cusable gnorance-defects in build
ing construction, faulty flues, poorly
arranged heating and lighting APP
paratus, criminal carelessness in
throwing around matches and cigar
stumps.
The purpose of this article is to
show how much of this loss can be
avoided in the average home, partic-
ularly the detached cottage of frame
construction It will not advocate
any very expensive or radical meas
ures. Where the locating of a bucket
Of water slight repair to plaster,
the placing of few bricks, few
cents worth of metal or plaster block
will make fire or it's spread less likely
such changes in old houses Will be
recommended. For those contemplate
ing building, certain inexpensive
structural safeguards will be pointed
out. These expedients will not give
the safety of absolute fireproofing,
which is beyond the field of this pa
per. All that need be said upon this
subject is that fireproofing and ordi-
nary construction are now not so
widely different in COST and the pros
pective builder will do well, before
deciding, to get the comparative fig
ures for his own locality.
Protecting Frame House from Fire.
Fire protection for the frame build
ing is not an untried theory. 1t is
4 based upon elaborate data as to the
origin and behavior of fires collected
4 and analysed over a long period CT
years by fire experts, who from them
have framed certain technical rules
as to what increases and what de-
creases fire hazard. On these rules,
the fire insurance companies largely
base their charges.
4 These expert conclusions, Invested
y of techpicalities, show that fire pro
lection, in It's final analysis, consists
4 in having every room, hall, or stair
A way as nearly like an alright box
! as possible, and with the least amount
\ of combustible material. The ideal
\ room is a box made wholly of metal
! brick or stone, through the sides OF
4 which fire cannot pass. A fire is
u like mouse: If it is in a box with no
q openings, it can escape only by gnaw.
\ ing Its way out, and the time it will
I take to gnaw out depends on the ma,
: ture of the box. If the box is alright
the fire, like the mouse, must smother
as soon as the oxygen IS used up.
This box principle is readily tested
j. Throw handful of burning shavings
into cardboard hat-box and clap on
the lid tightly. The fire will be choked
: out before it can get at the outside
air. Now cut hole in the top and
at the side of the box, and repeat the
experiment. The flames will leap out
: of the scuttle and lick up the edge OF
the roof Of the box A fro starting
in the lower hall of house will be.
!. have in exactly the same way if a win
|, dow on the ground floor and a scuttle
or upper window are open. The
t lower window supplies air for com.
/ bustion; the upper opening acts as a
f1ue to lead the flames, heat, and
smoke up the stairwell. If there had
been no opening above and no air sup
ply below, the fires rise must have
been far less rapid This is the rea
son for closing doors and windows
| behind you as you seek to escape
( from a fire 1t is also the reason why
tight-shutting doors, windows, and
. walls which do not let in air to supply
oxygen to blaze are better than
those which let in oxygen through
large cracks.
e Making the Stairway Safe.
Every door which breaks, at a floor
t the upward sweep Of the stairweu
] makes the top of box through which
fire must gnaw to get above that floor
1t also reduces the volume Of air d.!
rectly about fire, so that the fire is
more quickly dependent on oxygen
s from the outside. If this door in the
t stairwell is metal sheathed and prop
erly hung, it is still greater protec
, ton. If, in addition, the walls and
$ ceilings Of the stairwell are of ma
: terial which is not good fuel, the fire
{ has SO much less to feed on in Its
natural rush upward. For this rea
t son, good thick plaster is better than
thin cracked plaster; plaster on metal
Hath is better than that on wood; plas
ter block is still better. The ideal
stairwell of course, would be fire
| hof o41l s1s,