The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-07-13

Only $67.oo0.06o Of the loss in 1911 were due
20 nres In brick, concrete and other slowburn.
ing construction. while more than double that
amount s1s9. 6S0622. was In frame build.
ngs The Investigations Of the Bureau in.
cluded the assembling OF information relative
to tn most fre-resisting and fre-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 di.
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
hre risk in the storage and portation of
such liquid fuels as gasolene. kerosene and
alcohol, and the third related TO the risks of
storing and handling explosives.
BY the development through tests OF a better
knowledge OF the most economical methods of
preparing. proportioning and using our prac-
tically ineIhaustible resources OF building
stone. brick. tile and concrete making materials,
we may hope to greatly reduce the use and
waste of the more per1shable and less abundant
timber and iron resources now SO generally
supplied In building construction. This con.
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, fabricating and erecting them
are devised
dominating feature OF this question is the
cheapness of the material which will most
readily make a home or workshop Wood had
been that material. ready to hand from the
days Of the early coonists. While the de.
structon of our forest lands by fire is a calam.
ity as affecting floods, droughts and the pro.
ductiveness of the soil, yet whatever greatly
increases the cost Of wood Is unmixed
evil, since 1t drives to the substitution of other
materials for building purposes.
II, as experts. number OF fire protection ex-
perts were asked to devise the form of city
which would most easily be destroyed by fire,
they would find their labor saved by taking as
models any one OF hundreds OF cities which
are already built, apparently with obstruction
as the ultimate end in view.
Given a 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
names We go step farther and pierce the
floors vertically with as many unprotected
openings as possible for stairs. elevators.
dumbwaters and skylights. Not satisfied with
this, put on immense wooden cornces GOV.
cred with fmsy 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 combustbe ma
terial. To many Of the so-caled best con.
structed buildings in the average American
mansard roofs and other evils constructed of
wood which features neutralize and destroy
the value Of the expensive semi-hreproof con.
struction that may lay beneath.
Single roofs are great evil, crime in fact,
productive of heavy fire loss. They are alto.
gether bad and should not be tolerated in any
city on buildings within reasonable reach OF
any other building The Galveston fire. the
not to go back to the vast proportion of area
destroyed by the Chicago conf1agration-alI
owe their spread to the single roof which
was directly responsible for the enormous