The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1911-11-08
He Would Not Permit a
Piece of Wood In Buildings
Three Stories High.

stablish a department, founded some
what on the lines of the pure food law.
for the purpose Of establishing lab
oratories whose business 1t should be
to test and classify various materials
used throughout the construction of
fireproof buildings in order that the
public may be provided with q salts
factory and sane schedule, of standards
Of known safety and which shall be ac-
cepted as such by all departments and
authorities in this country, and the
law or laws necessary to make these
conditions possible should be enacted
with the idea constantly in mind that
the present so called fireproof build
ing is such only so far as its exterior
$ concerned and that legislation Is
needed and demanded by the public to
insure adequate and proper protection
to the lives Of all persons who may be
called upon to congregate in all build
lngs of a public or semipublic nature.
"Under the majority of the present
building codes so called f1reproof build
ings are substantially f1reproof in the
sense that a confagration rarely does
serious injury to the building itself.
The flames may rage from room to
room and floor to floor; floors, doors.
partitions and all interior fittings may
char and be consumed; the contents
may be destroyed throughout and some
or many of the occupants lose their
lives, but the four walls and frame
work, that is. the organic structure of
the building, usually comes through
the confagration intact. 1t is the COM
bustion of contents, not damage to the
buildings themselves, that makes fire
losses in the United States so heavy
in proportion to the amount spent for
new construction. The need, therefore.
is not for ordinance requirements
which will make the buildings more
effectually 'fireproof,' but enactments
which will protect the inmates and
contents of buildings by making it
impossible for a fire once started to
course virtually unchecked from room
to room and floor to floor Of building
whose walls are fireproof. In other
words, death proof and confagration
proof construction are necessary re-
quirements for new compulsory legis-
lation for 'fireproof construction
Future Construction.
Future construction must be so re-
quired that the starting of flames in
one room of building need not make
imperative the instantaneous exit
therefrom of all persons employed in
the building, or even on the floor where
the fire starts. Means Of safety for
both persons and property must be Sc
cured in the building, and even on the
floor where the fire starts, by making
impossible the instantaneous convert
ing of elevator shafts and stairways
into fiues for the flames and by making
impossible the rapid spread of flames
from room to room and floor to floor.
Nothing could be more dangerous,
more expensive or more unnecessary
than the idea that the safety of work
ers in factory and loft buildings can
best be secured, or can be secured at
all, by providing means of rapid exit to
the street. The cost Of the kind Of fire
escapes and the additional stairways
properly required, as well as the con-
siderable space occupied by such de-
vices, would make them almost pro-
hibitive in expense, even If practicable
or effectual, which they could not be.
"Even If, however, all the occupants
could be got out safely and In time, no
reason appears why the contents
should be left to the mercy of flames
coursing from room to room and floor
to floor until checked by the activities
Of the firemen. Both persons and
property should be afforded protection
In the building by making It's construc-
ton really fireproof-that is, death
proof and conflagration proof-thereby
confining the flames to a limited area
within which to burn themselves out,
consuming only such contents as are
not removed to safety behind doors
and partitions as effectually fire resist
ing as the walls themselves.
One Great Lesson.
Zone great lesson which many re-
cent fires have taught is that no build
ing is more fireproof than are its doors
and windows, while the presence of
wood in trim or casing anywhere less
ems to that extent the fire resisting
and fire confning power of the struc-
ture. No IAatter if the walls are fully
fireproof, doors of wooden construc-
ton permit the flames to sweep from
room to room and floor to floor instead
of being confined to one room, as is
possible in fireproof buildings in real
ity, not fireproof only in name
"How often it is true that hotels,
theaters, apartment buildings and the
| like are advertised as 'fireproof
throughout only to have some fire dis
close that the buildings were veritable
fire traps the fireprOof construction
of the walls, floors and even stairways
making only more perfect hues for the
rapid combustion of dnder-like doors
partitions, window castings, trim and
room contents. Those who go into
public hotels and halls at night should
have protection and assurance that
representations of fireproof construc
tion ara in reality we'll foindad