El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-10-18
Eliminating the Rubbish
New YOrk's Fire Department En-
pIOys Experts to Teach Public
the Value of Cleanliness.
rcderie J. HasEiR--

! the Value of Cleanliness.
i--By L rcd eric ). HasE%iR--
Continued from page one-)
| leave matches lying around, not to fail
/ to look twice at anything resembling
| the beginning of a fire, or to fail to
| notify the chief of the fire department
of anything you may see which is dan
| gerous and liable to cause fire. Re
member that every Jay is fire proven
/ ton day"
Fire Prevention Day Urged.
The national board of fire under
| writer's urges governors and state fire
marshals to set aside a fire prevention
day in which every possible effort shall
1 be made teaching the people at large,
| including factory workers and school
children. how to minimize the danger
of fire as well as how to suppress and
eVade it. The governors are urged to
appoint such a day by proclamation,
calling attention to the enormous an
nual fire waste in this country, and
urging the citizens to take steps to
reduce it. Appropriate exercises can
be held in the public schools. This day
can be in conjunction with the clean
up" day which is now becoming so gen
orally popular. 1t can be explained.
that the cleaning up of rubbish is
most effective means of fire preyen-
ton as some of the greatest conflagra-
ton upon record have caused by the
dropping of a spark upon a pile of dry
leaves, paper, rags or other trash.
=. New York Eliminates Rubbish.
The city of New York organized its
fire prevention bureau two years ago
as part of the fire department An
, appropriation was made for the en-
plOyment of experts and an experienced
deputy fire chief was placed at its head
! first step Thousands of orders were
issued compelling owners and tenants
to clean up neglected corners. "Smok-
/ ing prohibited signs were tackled In
al hui r inc arr7
steps were taken toward enforcing this
rule The remedying of dangerous ex-
its was taken up and last year over
1900 orders were issued calling for i'm
prOvement in this direction. Fifty thou
sand placards emphasizing the danger
of careless handling of matches and in
structinS housewives how to fight in
their homes were distributed through
out the city.
Incendiarfsm Is Investigated.
An exhaustive investigation of in
cendiarism and its connection with the
fire insurance of the city was also
made. This proved that at least % per
cent Of the fires of the city were due
to this cause. and a sudden cessation
of fires in certain localities followed
the publication of the report upon ar
son and the subsequent conviction Of
a large number of firebugs, crooked
adjuSters and agents, upon the evidence
furnished by the men who conducted
the investigation. It was shown that
no prior inspection upon ordinary
household risks Policies amounting to
S127,5O0 were obtained upon a small
collection of household junk actually
worth less than five dollars A bill cor
recung this insurance evil was pre-
pared for the legislature Although II
was defeated last year its influence has
been strongly felt and its ultimate pas
sage is probable
Croker DevOtes Himself to Work.
Ex-chief Edwin F Croker of New
York, was so affected by the lack Of
preventive measures taken in the Tri- :
angle shirtwaist factory when $50 girl
workers lost their lives despite the
most valiant efforts of the fire de-
partment that he gave up his office to
devote his time wholly TO fire proven
tive work He claims that nine out of
every ten great fires could be readily
extinguiShed by any person during the
first five or ten minutes of their ex-
istence. After that they could be ma
terially 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
shoulder for hours before breaking
into flame. If every individual would
constitute himself a committee of one
to extinguish promptly any little
smouldering fire as soon as found, hun
dreds of large fires would be prevented
each year.
Careless Methods in Homes.
The laws governing fire prevention
in all large buildings have received
much greater attention than have those
for private homes. In view of the care
less 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 oc-
cur in houses from the careless use of
gasoline. In Washington city a few
years ago a woman was disfigured for
life. plumber was killed, and a 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 plumber was en-
gagged to make some .repalrS. He en-
tered the room with his lighted stove |
and an explosion and fire resulted. In !
some cities now the street cars are
placarded with the advertisement of a
non-inflamable cleansing fluid bearing /
the words For Safety's sake give us |
gasoline" Yet until some legal re-
Str1cuOn prevents the sale OF gasoline.
excepting for specified purposes, the |
dangers from its use in the home will /
continue.
spontaneous combustion of oil-soaked |
rags used for cleaning floors or furni- |
ture. Water is a foe to fire but damp !
ness is not, because it aids the COM |
bination of oxygen with inflamable |
material. For this reason such rub |
Dish left in a damp cellar may fire. /
quently start a fire. In a record of fire !
causes kept in Rochester for two /
months, nearly a fourth of them were 1
caused by candles, lamps and matches. !
The Christmas tree candle has wrecked |
thousands of homes and many more i
have been burned by fires caused by a /
loose curtain blowing against an IN !
protected flame.
Materials to BE Tested.
Greater care in the selection of ma |
terials used in building as well as in |
planning buildings with view to min /
imizing their fire area, are among the !
most important fire preventive meas
ures to be put into effect in this coun-
try One reason for the large number /
of conflagratiOns in this country as 4
compared to Europe is that buildings
IN Europe contain less inflamable ma
terial. In some countries they are
chiefly of stone. because wood was not !
so plentiful as it has been here It is /
now possible to construct buildings of /
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 under
writer's has established laboratories for
the testing of all kinds of material
as well as appliances used in modern !
buildings Any manufacturer can have /
his product tested nv them |