New-York tribune., 1910-12-29
NO DANGER Zone CROKER
Fire Chief Says a "ConfIagra-
tion District" Doesn't Exist.
FOR HIGH BUILDING LIMIT
Desires Power, Also, to Compel
Use of Safety Devices and
Advocates Many Reforms.

Fire Chief Croker came to the witness
stand of the Legislative Investigating Com
mittee yesterday afternoon to tell what
could be accomplished by legislation to re-
duce the fire waste Of New York. He took
occasion incidentally to deny fatty the ex-
istence Of a "conflagration district as en-
brsced in the term used by the fire insur
ance companies in referring to that portion
OF the city between Chambers and 18th
streets from river to river.
.'I don't think that confagration in
that district or anywhere else in New York
is possible said the chief.
On the subject of high building construc-
ton he said that 1t ought to be limited in
some way. because the fire fighting force
Of water was limited by the height OF the
present best apparatus for shooting a
heavy stream directly into fire. which is
the water tower. and that limit he put at
about eighty-five feet. or seven stories.
It's not a question OF how high we can
throw water" said the chief I'VE can
throw water over most buildings now, but
away up-that means only wetting the win
dow sills, while fire might be raging in the
middle Of the floor
He bewailed the lack of power to enforce
fits rulings which hampers the Fire Depart
ment and declared that If he had his
wish 1t would be that when order OF
the department to install preventive appll-
ances disregarded, the Fire Depart
ment could dispossess the occupant be he
owner or tenant and put policeman on
the door until the order was obeyed.
Advocates Many Reforms
AS suggestions to the legislators, Chief
Croker advocated a state fire marshal. un-
hampered by political influence, equipped
with force, with salary and with tenure
of office sufficient TO enable him to do his
work: frame construction prohibited, rev1s-
ion OF the building code, installation of au-
tomato sprinklers In the cellars OF all
apartment and tenement houses, in all mer-
camille buildings, lofts. warehouses, piers.
docks and wherever the Fire Commissioner
directed, and thorough inspections, with
power to enforce rulings vested in the Fire
Department
One more point the chief discussed in de-
TAIL and that was the insufficient lighting
IF the cellars, Railways and stairways OF
apartment houses, tenement houses and
loft buildings.
I'VE find a great deal of trouble In
cellars he said. "A tenant has an old
bed, old baby carriage, anything Ole
ana u1SCTIuSO, anu ne SiOESS IL iAi t3iC SOi1os- =
Result, the cellars are an accumulation OF
rubbish-dangerous rubbish. for when they
go to the cellars at night they light q
match or In the tenement districts, more
often piece of paper, which they throw
on the floor when they're through-resuit,
fire There should be a light in every
cellar and light burning in every hall
way from sunset to sunrise, and all the
twenty-four hours in dark halls.
''AlI tie cellars of tenement and apart
ment houses should have a sprinkler con-
nection, and there should be no openings
from cellar to upper floors in the interior"
Another complaint the chief registered
was against the unlimited establishment of
rag shops" They seemed to be every
where, he said. He even knew Of one To-
Gated in the cellar Of a church.
How He Would Reduce Fires.
AS to the establishment of a sufficient in
spection force connected with the Fire De-
partment, he said:
I'D guarantee to reduce the fire waste IS
per cent in the first year If had power to
inspect and power to remove hazards and
there's no telling how much more | could
do with such force when L got ii going.
Something less than one hundred and
fifty men of the uniformed force were now
engaged inspection duty, he said, and
their work was almost altogether in thea
tres and moving picture establishments.
He said that there were hundreds of So
called workshops between Sixth and
Fifth avenues which were no more than
high class 'sweatshops," in which workers
must needs work under conditions that
were unsafe and dangerous, and he would
have an inspection force which could give
them at least as much protection as thea
tregoers.
Chief Croker said he had held that posi-
tjo, for eleven years and had been in the
department twenty-seven years. Thers
are forty-five hundred men in the depart
rnent: it's cost about SS.000,G00 a year,
and. barring the fact that he thought he
needed about three hundred more men
than he has. he thought the New York de-
uartnaent was a as high state of eff
cheney as was possible with the latest ap-
paratus.
OF the forty-five hundred men IN the
jepartnnent the Chief testified, only about
ten were employed on actual fire preven-
comment ON the testimony Of Frank r..
Chambers that he, Croker. was the kind
OF fire fighter who would be disappointed
If he arrived at fire that had been put
out BY automatic sprinklers.
II wish they were all extinguished when
we got there" he said without any malice
Thinks Present Laws Inadequate.