The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1911-10-12
GOVERNMENT SHOULD ACT
TO PREVENT LOSSES BY FIRE
He Would Not Permit a
Piece of Wood In Buildings
Three Stories High.
100000 oooeeeeo

establish a department, founded some
what on the lines Of the pure food law,
for the purpose Of establishing lab
oratories whose business it 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-
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
is concerned and that legislation is
needed and demanded by the public to
insure adequate and proper protection
10 the lives Of all persons who may be
called upon to congregate in all build
ings of a public or semipublic nature.
"Under the majority Of the present
building codes so called freproof build
ings are substantially fireproof in the
sense that 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
I hot icS +ha nj CITY, rf
the building, usually comes through
the confagration intact. It 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
efectually 'freproof,' 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 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 a building need not make
imperative the instantaneous exit
| 1f ",
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 fues 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, nc
reason appears why the contents
should be left to the mercy Of flames
coursing from room to room and foo
to floor until checked by the activities
of the iremen. Both persons an<
property should be afforded protection
in the building by making it's construc
ton really freproof-that is, dealt
> proof and confagration proof-thereb
, combining the flames to limited are
within which to burn themselves Out
consuming only such contents as ar
$ not removed to safety behind door
V and partitions as effectually fire resis
Z ing as the walls themselves.
One Great Lesson.
d Zone great lesson which many r
c cent fires have taught is that no bull
e ing is more freproof than are it's doc
g and windows, while the presence
a wood in trim or casing anywhere les
,e ems to that extent the fire resisti1
N and fire confirming power of the stru
it ture. No matter if the walls are ful
1t fireproof, doors Of wooden constrr
C. ton permit the flames to sweep frc
pit room to room and floor to floor inste
m Of being confined to one room, as
m possible in fireproof buildings in re
Nv ity, not freproof only in name.
en- 'How often it is true that hote
'rs theaters, apartment buildings and
gs like are advertised as 'frepr'
= throughout only to have some fire
ms close that the buildings were verita
ate fire traps the f1reproof construct
we Of the walls, floors and even stairw'
making only more perfect flues for
oV~ rapid combustion of tinder-like do<
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