Norwich bulletin., 1916-10-10
FIRE ADMINISTRATION FOR
 BENEFIT OF CHILDREN
(Continued from Page Five)

need all the room they can get.
 Give the firemen credit when they deserve it.
 Realize that the fire department is ready at all times to respond to alarms within 30 seconds after any alarm is sent in.
 That delay in sending in an alarm is responsible for nearly every large fire that occurs in every city. The most efficient work Is rendered if the department arrives within three min utes after the fire breaks out.
 Finally, help the fire department to prevent fires, and should a fire occur, send in an alarm quickly.
 Every year there is burned up-ab- solutely destroyed-property valued at more than S250,000,000. About $780, 900 a day goes up in flame.
 It is estimated that more than 65 per cent of all fires take place in homes and 1t Is stated that approM- mately 90 per cent. of all fires are due to carelessness. ignorance or both. In other words. nearly 50 per cent. or all fires in the home might be prevented if people would take the slightest pre- cautions, first to prevent the fire from starting, and second. to eXtinguish it immediately after 1t does start.
 One Of the greatest hazards on the ed with old farrnhouses and the farm houses too frequently are filled with piles of rubbish, the accumulation of years. which are constant invitations to fire and a constant menace to the security of those who live in the house.
 What shall we do with the old chair? Put it in the attic.
 What shall we do with this pile of magazines? Put it in the attic.
 Here is an old roll of carpet, what shall we do with it Put it in the at- tic.
 These are the questions and these the answers that have resulted in at tics being filled with rubbish. It may not be kind to call the chair in which ones grandmother sat rubbish, but it is rubbish if it is tossed aside. not used, allowed to become dusty.
 Throw away the useless things in your home and you will quickly elim- mate half the danger of fire. If a chair has served it's usefulness, throw it away. burn it up. do anything you wish with it except-put it in the at tic
 Don't let dark closets and cellars be filled with old things that you don't want either. See that your farmhouse is swept and garnished and that the dark places are clean.
 Willie goes to the cellar to get the ice skates that he hung under the stairs last spring. He takes matches with him to light his way. He gets the Skates, ana, knowing the way DdCk, drops the match on the floor. It falls in a pile of old paper. but he does not see it. The little yellow flame finds ready food on which to grow great and grows. and another home is wiped out.
 Such simple causes destroy thous- ands of homes in this country every year. But these fires are due to care lessness and nothing else. It is care lessness to permit the rubbish to ac- cumulate just as much as 1t is for Willie to drop the match. It is just as careless to build a fire trap as it is to burn one through lack of proper precaution.
 l. If you are going to build a house far removed from town or city's fire protection, see that it is built safely. The cost is a little more maybe, but the chance of it's destruction is les Sened nightly.
 Do not store damp hay. It is a pro- life cause of fire. In a test made out in an open field. matches placed in been thoroughly cured, started that haystack burning in less than three hours.
 An oily rag tossed under a kitchen sink may begin to smoke and then burst into f1ame while the one who threw it there is sleeping. Sponta- neous combustion starts many an un- explained fire. Matches should be kept in metal covered receptacles and high enough from the floor to prevent children from getting at them.
 Every farmhouse should contain, at least, rudimentary means of fighting fire when it starts. There should be small hand etinguishers that child or woman can use. There should be water pails in the entry way and the pails should not be used for scrub ping floors. That is why round bot tom pails are better for fire use than flat bottom pails. Round bottom pails cannot be carried about and used. E1v- cry room above the ground floor should be provided with at least rope, if should be a ladder outside of the house long enough to reach the ridge | pole of the house..