The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1911-11-23
GOVERNMENT SHOULD ACT
TO PREVENT LOSSES BY FIRE
He Would Not Permit a
Piece of Wood In Buildings
Three Stories High.

establish department, founded some
what on the lines of the pure food law.
for the purpose of establishing lab.
oratories whose business ii should be
to test and classify various materials
used throughout the construction of
freproof buildings in order that the
public may be provided with a salts
factory and sane schedule of standards
of known safety and which shall be ac-
copied 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
is 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
ings of a public or semipubIic nature,
Under the majority of the present
building codes 50 called fireproOf build
ings are substantially freprOOf in the
sense that a coniagration 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 confiagration 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 n building
whose walls are freprOOf. In other
words, death proof and cOnfagratiOn
proof construction are necessary re-
quirements for new compulsory legis-
lation for 'freproof 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
the instantaneous convert
ing of elevator shafts and stairways
into flues for the flames and by making
the rapid spread of flames
from room to room and floor to floor.
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
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 |
from room to room and floor /
20 floor until checked by the activities |
# the fremen. Both persons and /
should be afforded protection !
n the building by making its Construc- |
ion really fireprOof-that is. death /
proof and confagration probationary /
,onfning the flames to a limited area .
within which to burn themselves out. .
only such contents as are (
lot removed to safety behind doors
Ind partitions as efectuaIly fire resist
ng as the walls themselves.
One Great Lesson.
Zone great lesson which many re-
ent fires have taught is that no build
ng is more freproof than are its doors
nd windows, while the presence of
wood in trim or casing anywhere less
ms to that extent the fire resisting
nd fire confning power of the struc-
ure. No matter if the walls are fully
Ireproof. doors Of wooden construc-
ion permit the flames to sweep from
DOM to room and floor to floor instead
f being confined to one room. as is
possible in fireproof buildings in real
~, not fireproof only in name
How often it is true that hotels,
heaters, apartment buildings and the
Ike are advertised as 'fireproof
only to have some fire dis
lose that the buildings were veritable
ire traps the fireproof construction
I the walls. floors and even stairways
laking only more perfect fues for the !
lpid combustion of tinder-like doors.
artitions. window castings. trim and !
pom coH-ents. Those who go into :
ublic hotels and halls at night should
ave protection and assurance that
Of freproof construc-
on are in reality well founded.
Every building should have straight, I
road stairways Of fireproof construc-
on, and every door and partition. no