The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-09-10
Individual Fire Fighting
(Springfield Republican

"A woman poured quart OF gasoline
In the marble wash bowl Of the toilet
room and placed a silk waist in it. She
closed the door and returned In about
10 minutes. She rubbed the silk be-
tween her hands. This generated suf.
fcient electricity to make a spark.
The gasoline exploded. the house
burned and the woman lost her life.
II the woman had known that gaso-
line evaporates rapidly. that the gas
1t makes is seven times more danger
GUS than gunpcwder, that a single
spark would cause a terrible explo-
sion and that one may generate an ell
ectrical spark by rubbing silk cloth-if
the woman had known all this, there
would have been no fire in the house
and sho would probably be alive to-
day. And there is no reason why
people generally should not know
these facts of ordinary life. The in
cident is dramatic but highly illustra.
tive of the need of popular education
concerning fire hazards in the home.
the shop and the factory Americans
are still too careless, too indifferent,
to ignorant regarding fires, which
cause an annual loss OF property in
this country amounting in value to
hundreds of millions of dollars.
The chamber of Commerce in the
city of Rochester has undertaken to
educate the people there by issuing a
series of instructive booklets for gem
eral distribution among business men
and householders. The first one CALI
ed attention to the serious injury to
the community on account of preventa-
BILE fires and the increase year by
year OF fire loss and in the number of
fires. 1t was argued that this increase
Cannot be wholly laid to the increase
of the worlds population. 1t has been
shown that the increase is due to the
individual carelessness and, of course,
the remedy lies in individual fire pre-
vention and fighting, because every
fire is an individual responsibility for
the first five minutes of it's life" Now
comes the second booklet, copy Of
which is at hand entitled Individual
Fire Fighting" ard the aim Of which
is ito interest you in fire fighting on
your own premises, to get you to in
vestigate the conditions that. exist in
your office, store, factory or home
with new sense of your personal re-
sponsibility in the matter OF fires
The publication merits the highest
praise. not only because of the public
spirit that inspired it, but also because
of the excellent method and effective
style that distinguished the presenta-
ton of the subject. If 1t could be read
by everybody, almost without excep-
ton, the effect could not fail to be
beneficial. The booklet can be obtain
ed from the Rochester, N. Y, Chamber
of Commerce, by people outside that
city, at the following rates: Less than
100 copies, five cents each; stamps &C.
cepted in payment.
On page four is a short chapter on
How to study your problem From
that we took the paragraph about the
woman and the gasoline and placed 1t
at the beginning Of this article. Every
home nowadays has its gasoline hax.
ard because because women use SO
much of it in cleaning clothes. IL
every dyeing and cleaning establish
ment the stuff is used in large guam.
titles. But gasoline is only an item.
"Your problem" of fire prevention is
multifarious, whether 1t is home, a
store, or building that you are con.
cerned in. 1t is worth while to quote
from the booklet at this point to =
lustrate it's quality and method:
THE first move is to study your
place alone. Consider that you are a
stranger see it from that point of
view, use your common sense and
make note of all the things you would
do to improve the place SO fire could
not start, and it it did, the things
you would do to fight it. Write these
things down and file them away.
Next call on the fire marshal tell
ing him that you are interested in the
protection of your place from fire.
Ask him to make an inspection and
give you written report of the things
he recommends you should do. He is