The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1913-07-20

Only $67.000,000 Of the loss In 1911 were due
TO fires In brick, concrete and other slowburn-
Ing construction, while more than double that
amount, or $169, ,6S0622, was in frame build
fngs. The Investigations Of the Bureau in
cluded the assembling Of information relative
to thl most hre-resisting and flre-proof forms
of construction, the former for the prevention
of CONGREGATIONS. and the latter for the pre-
vention OF the destruction OF the building IN
which fire starts. The Investigations were d.
vided into three groups. The first included
cement, concrete and reinforced concrete, tile
brick and other clay products. building stone
and gravel. The second concerned the relative
fire risk In the storage and transportation Of
such liquid fuels as gasoene, kerosene and
alcohol, and the third related to the risks OF
storing and handling explosives.
BY the development through tests of better
knowledge Of the most economical methods of
preparing, proportioning and using our prac-
ticaly inexhaustibe resources Of building
Stone brick, tile and concrete making materials,
we may hope to greatly reduce the use and
waste Of the more perishable and less abundant
timber and iron resources now 30 generally
supplied IN building construction. This
dition Is, moreover, being fastened. as the diff
ference In cost OF the two classes Of materials
Increase; for the price OF timber and iron
structures tends to increase as these materials
become more scarce, while that Of stone con.
crete and brick diminishes, as better methods
of preparing. fabrlcating and erecting them
devised.
A dominating feature Of this question Is the
cheapness of the material which will most
readily make home or workshop. Wood had
been that material, ready to hand from the
days of the early coonists. While the de.
struction Of our forest lands by fire is calam-
3ty affecting foods, droughts and the pro.
ducttveness OF the soil, yet whatever greatly
Increases the cost Of wood is not an unmixed
evil since 1t drives to the substitution Of other
materials for building purposes.
If, as experts, number of fire protection e1
perts were asked to devise the form Of city
which would most easily be destroyed by Are
they would find their labor saved by taking as
models any Of hundreds Of cities which
are already built, apparently with destruction
ss the ultimate end In view.
Given compact brick and stone business
centre, to this we add buildings Of height be.
yond the reach Of fire department apparatus
and the pressure OF water systems, with large
areas to give unbroken sweep to the
flames. We go q step farther and pierce the
floors vertically with as many unprotected
openings as possible for stairs, elevators
dumbwaiters and skylights- Not satisfied with
cred with himsy sheets Of tin, admirably
adapted to spread fire from one building to
another Then we put In many windows as
we can to exactly oppose windows in the next
building. In the interior construction Of these
brick and stone buildings we place lumber
yards OF timber, and thus having completed
them, we fill them up with combustible ma
terial. To many of the so-called best con.
structed buildings IN the average American
city, there are added wholly useless domes
mansard roofs and other evils INSTRUCTED OF
wood, which features neutralize and destroy
the value of the expensive semihreproof CON
structton that may lay beneath.
Single roofs are great evil, crime In fact
productive Of heavy fire loss They are alto.
sether bad and should not be tolerated In any
city on buildings within reasonable reach OF
any other building The Galveston fire. the
Jacksonville. Fla fire. the Chelsea, Mass. flre,
not to go back to the vast proportion of area
destroyed by the Chicago confagration-aII
owe their spread to the shngle roof. which
was directly responsible for the enormous