Evening star., 1913-10-18


though ii was defeated last year, its in
fluence has been strongly felt and its
ultimate passage is probable
Ex-Chief Edwin F. Croker of New York
was so affected by the lack of preventive
measures taken
Suppression Easy in the Triangle
in Most Instances. tory when 1so
girl workers lost their lives. despite the
most valiant efforts of the fire depart
ment. that he gave up his Office to devote
his time wholly to fire preventive work.
He claims that Qine out of every ten
great fires could be readily extingushed
by any person during the first five or ten
minutes of their existence. After that
they could be materially held in check
until the arrival of the fire department
if only those who were present knew how.
All fires are small at the beginning. They
may come from gas, rats nests. oil
soaked cotton, exposed electric wires.
and hundreds of other causes, and may
smolder for hours before breaking into
flame. If every individual would consti-
tute himself a committee of one to eX-
tinguish promptly any little smoldering
fire as soon as found, hundreds of large
fires would be prevented each year.
The laws governing fire prevention in all
large buildings have received much great
er attention than have those for private
homes. In view of the careless methods
which prevail in most households in
America the wonder is not that fires are
SO frequent, but that they are SO rare.
Each day fires occur i'm houses from the
careless use of gasoline. In Washington
city few years ago woman was dis
figured for life, plumber was killed and
fire which demolished three houses
started because some oriental rugs had
been cleaned with gasoline in an upstairs
room. The room was left closed and the
day following a plumber was engaged to
make some repairs. He entered the room
and fire resulted. In some cities now the
street cars are placarded with the ad-
vertisement of n anon-infiammablec cleansing
fluid bearing the words For safety sake
give us gasoline" Yet until some legal
restriction prevents the sale of gasoline,
excepting for specified purposes the dan
gers from its use in the home will con-
tinue.
Many fires have originated from spon-
taneous combustion of oil-soaked rags
used for cleaning floors or furniture.
Water Is a foe to fire, but dampness is
not. because it aids the combination of
oxygen with infiammable material For
this reason such rubbish left i'm damp
cellar may frequently start c. IRE. In a
record of fire causes kept in Rochester
for two months. nearly fourth of them
were caused by candles. lamps and
matches. The Christmas tree candle has
wrecked thousands of homes and many
more have been burned by fires caused by
loose curtain blowing against an unpro-
tected flame.
Greater care in the selection of mate
rials used in building as We 8" -'@n-
ming buildings
Plans to Minimize 49, -.
Danger in Buildings. their ~ f,rs a-es
ventive measures to be put into effec;
IN this country. One reason for the large
number of conflagrations in this country
as compared to Europe is that buildings
in Europe contain less infiammable mate
rial. In some countries they chiefly
OF stone. because wood was not so plenti-
ful as it has been here. 1t is now pos
sibie to construct buildings of concrete or
hollow tiles in this country as cheaply as
of wood. and those about to build should
carefully consider their advantage in fire
prevention.
The national board of fire underwriters
has estaDhsned laboratories for the test
ing of all kinds of material as well as
appliances used in modern buildings ANY
manufacturer can have his product tested
by them and If approved be furnished
with certificate to that effect The
laboratories have tested all kinds of
building materials, skylights, lighting fix
lures, liquid fuel, heating, cooking and
welding apparatus. electric wiring an
paratus. wa te re"eptacles and the like.