The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-11
TAKE ISSUE WITH
 FIRE CHIEFS VIEW
 OF REAL FIREPROOF'
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(CONT1N FED FROM PAGE D ture instead of wood, for the furniture is the only inflammable material in them.
 rTaken. in order of their height above seven stories I consider the following buildings absolutely fireproof: The Ameri- can Trust and Savings bank building, Elm pire building, Brown Marx building, First National bank building, Woodward build ing, Title Guarantee building and Cham Der of Commerce building.
 'In view of the statements made by the engineers and firemen of the fire de- partment above referred to, l am con- strained to add that unless the fire de- partment avals itself of the provisions made in the office buildings for it's as sistance, the blame for fire loss in on the fire department and not on the build ings. For example: The Chamber ot Commerce building has an inch main running up through the building from the basement connected at all stories and in elevator house with fire underwriters hose. with two Siamese outlets at the sidewalk level, put in expressly for the accommodation of the fire department for the purpose of extinguishing locai fires. These Samese connections at the sidewalk level are for the purpose of hooking on connections with the fire steamers so that water can be pumped up to any floor in the building If my information is correct, the fire depart- ment in extinguishing recent fire in the Chamber of Commerce building made absolutely no use of this fire line, though
 1t was put in for their special conven- fence, preferring for some reason, know not what, to drag the hose full of water up six stories of ladder to extinguish the fire through outside windows. '1f this information is correct, 1t may not be amiss for me to state that il seems to me it should be the duty of the members of the fire department to familiarlze themselves with the convenz fences installed in the various fireproof buildings for their especial benefit"
 MT. Blake's Views
 When referring to the statements of the fire departments concerning fire proof buildings, Mir. Blake made the following remarks: The Equitable Life Insurance building, which was to- tally destroyed, was not considered by construction men as a modern freproof structure At the time 1t was built, some 25 years ago, it might have been regarded as a good example of fire pro- tected creations from the standards of this class of architecture known in those days. This Equitable building, as compared to l1e HTepTOOl cOnStTuCtlbH of today, is the same as the old fash toned buildings with heavy wooden beams cut at the mill of unusual size for the support of the floors and to withstand the blaze except for a slight charring.
 "The best evidence that our modern fireproof buildings are safe from the flames of what Is commonly known as a fire is the way in which they act under the heat of this fire. The Park Row building of New York City, which is one of the, earliest of the up to date fireproof erections, was threatened with @ large fire not so very long ago But the tenants of the building outside of the publishers office in which it origi- mated knew nothing of it until reading it the next day in the newspapers and the fire was absolutely confined to that group of offices. That the rooms were filled with papers, books and other highly inflammable articles made the possibility of the spread all the more dangerous. but the walls of the offices did not allow the flames to penetrate.
 Same Thing in Houston
 "A similar fate happened to the Scan Ian building of Houston, Tex, last fall when the office furniture of a business concern burned completely up without the remainder of the structure feeling tlO CiiNtto III ahy Way. Iil6- tHdfU- Der of Commerce building of this city is another demonstration of fireproof qualities In this case the concrete ceiling was scarcely injured at all only a small portion peeling off which en- abled one to see that the reinforcing steel bars were in absolutely perfect condition. The damage done to the steel frame buildings in the San Fran cisco earthquake fire was due to the fact that the shock of the quake loos- ened the hollow tiling protecting the steel, thereby exposing it to the enor- nous force of the conhagration which was heightened by the combustible na- ture of the other things burning. In New York City all types of reinforced concrete and tile fire proofng construc- tions have to undergo tests, under the present law code, before they are per mitted to be occupied These tests are all the more severe because the mate rials tested are heated to a very high temperature and cold water then turned