The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1915-10-14
FIRE ATTORNEY WORKS HERE
State Fire Marshal's Department to In
sist on Prosecution of People Who
Failed to Follow Orders to Improve
Buildings.

j. E. Florin of Madison, attorney for
the Wisconsin state fire marshal's de-
partment is in Kenosha and he is get
ting ready to start things in the NUM-
cipal court here. Last March the Wis.
consin Fire Prevention Assn. made a
survey of Kenosha. The engineers of
the association found some five humid
red defects in buildings in down town
portions Of the city and in scurches,
schools and other buildings of public
nature. These defects were certified
to the state fire marshal and last July
he sent out formal notices from Madi-
son directing owners of the property
to get busy and see to it that the
buildings met the demands of the state
fire prevention association. Less than
dozen owners of property in the down
town districts of the city got away
without getting one of these notices.
The great majority of these people met
the state officials half way and at once
ordered the changes suggested. Just
thirty-seven Of the property owners
have failed to comply with orders and
Attorney Florin is here to see to it that
taese people comply with the orders
without further delay or that they be
brought into court and prosecuted.
The final notice from the department
provides that the changes ordered
be made forthwith -
We are hopeful, " said Chief Iser-
mann this morning, "that Kenosha
would get through this without any
one being arrested and fined, but prop
erty owners seem to be hard people to
manage. They balk especially when it
comes to making proper provision for
electrical wiring. My own force has
been preaching safer electrical wiring
for years, but the property owners just
seem to be opposed to anything along
this line. Of course there are a lot
of people who meet every demand Of
the fire department just as soon as an
order is served on them. Then there
are lot of others who would rather
take the chance Of fire loss of humid
reds of dollars than spend few dol
lars in making changes. These people
fail to see that they owe anything to-
neighboring property owners. In most
cases where prosecutions have been
threatened three or four orders have
been given the people to make changes.
Attorney Florin has the active support
of this department. in his movement to
make Kenosha safer from the fire
standpoint In other cities many ar
rests have been made and it is prob
able that the state department will
take the same steps in Kenosha. I
have warned the people in person and
have sent my men to warn them and
they can not expect any further
notice.
The list submitted by the state of
fetal contained the names of many
people who have been more or less
prominent in the business life of the
city and it can be said as we'll that
there were the names of four churches
on the list. The pastors Of these
churches at once told the state official
that the orders which had been served
would be carried out to the letter just
as soon as workmen could be secured
to take care of the work.
Following closely on the inspection
made by the attorney for the state de-
partment Thomas Gordon of the local
department, is making an inspection of
every building in the down town dis
trict. This is the semi-annual local
inspection. Cards received from this
inspection show many defects in cleo
trical wiring.