Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1910-03-24
YOUR FIRt INSURANCE
Is IN DANGER
Through Keeping Gasoline
On the Premises.
Council VIII Probably
Be Asked to Make
Regulations.

1t is probable that at the approach
ing meeting of council a petition will
be presented by the insurance agents
of the city requesting that the board
nave an ordinance drafted fixing
the requirements as to the storage of
gasoline and protecting the lives and
property of citizens from the dangers
that now confront them from the in
discriminate storage of gasoline.
At present there are, apparently,
no regulations as to the storage of
gasoline, either in the business or the
residence section of the city. The
need for such regulations did not arise
until the automobile craze came on.
With the rapid increase of the num-
Der of machines in use in the city
though, there has been almost as
great an increase in the number of
places where gasoline is kept on the
premises, in quantities ranging from
a few gallons to a full barrel of 50
gallons or more. No record is kept
of the places where gasoline is stored,
there is no city law limiting the
quantity that can be carried or the
conditions under which it is to be
kept. This indifference up to this
time has materially increased the
danger from this highly explosive ar
ticle.
Local insurance agents point out
that property owners are unwittingly
vitiating their insurance policies by
keeping gasolene without a permit
Probably several scores of machine
owners have gasoline around their
premises without having secured per-
mission from the insurance company
Yet if a fire should occur this very
thing might vitiate the policy and re-
suit in their failure to secure any
insurance.
1T would be well for the Times-Re-
corder to call attention to this" said
fire insurance agent yesterday sc
that the owners of automobiles may
take steps to protect their insurance
policies. Under the policies there is
no extra charge made for keeping one
gallon of gasoline in a self-closing
can, or ten gallons in a similar
can, provided it is kept outside of
the building and thirty feet away, or
for keeping $50 gallons, provided it is
in steel tank five feet underground
and ten feet from the building. II
charge Of one per cent. extra is made
if more than ten gallons are kept
within thirty feet of the insured prop
erty, unless under agreement.
Now property owners here have.
not looked into this matter and few
of them seen to be aware that they
are putting their insurance in danger
by falling to comply with the re,
strictions that surround the use of
gasoline. The truth of the matter is
there are too few people who read
their fire insurance policies and know
what conditions exist. 1 have made
no inspection, but feel safe in say
ing that many automobile owners will
find that they are not complying with
the regulations.
There is another matter concerning
gasoline that the public, and especial
ly the city officials, should take cog
nizance of, and that is the carrying
of great quantities of it in the busi-
ress district seriously jeopardYzing
surrounding property. The destruct-
i've power of gasoline is recognized
to be very great and in the event of a
fire at one of the places where large
quantities are carried the city might
be threatened with a conflagration.
Then there is the menace to life.
Every place where gasoline is stored
should have a sign on it and the fire
department should be posted about it,
so that the men will not unneces-
sarily jeopardize their lives.
"Americus has been very slow in
taking hold of this gasoline matter
concluded the agent, ''but with the
rapid increase in the number of au-
tos here, and the keeping of so many
of them i'll the rear of dwellings, it is
high time that the matter was con-
sidered by council and regulations
adopted and rigidly enforced. And
those who are carrying Insurance
above all should see to it that they
are not impairing the value of their
policies"