New Britain herald., 1917-11-20
TO ELIMINATE FIRE
 HAZARDS IS PLAN
New Britain Real Estate Owners Issue Warnings Regarding Laxity
BIG FIRE A SEVERE LESSON
Conservation Association of Connecti- cut Will Visit This City to Make Inspection and the Organization Will Also Go to Other Cities.

Will Also Go to Other Cities.
 Since the disastrous fire on Main street, when thousands of dollars were lost in blaze which threatened the destruction of several buildings, New Britain real estate owners have become cognizant of the fact that fire prevention is pretty good thing. A lighted cigarette thrown care lessly upon the floor on leaving the
 office, store Or factory, may result in causing considerable loss, and, be- cause of this. owners of buildings have issued instructions to their em- ployes to be careful of their cigar cites, pipes and cigars.
 Inspectors of the Conservation As sociation of Connecticut that recently started a campaign to eliminate or re- duce the fire hazards in this state as a war measure will extend their work this week and next in this city, as well as in other cities. New Britain has had its share of fires, and this will be the second city visited. Wa terbury will be the first Over in Wa terbury they usually have a great number of fires each year; but, thanks to the efficiency of its fire depart ment, to the personnel of the depart ment, and to the department chief, Henry Heitman, the fire loss is de- pleted year by year.
 Other towns besides New Britain and Waterbury to be visited by the association are: Bristol, Plainville, Berlin, Terryville, Union City, Nauga- tuck, Watertown, Waterville, Thomas ton, Mystic, Noank, Stonington, Paw catuck, Groton, and all of Windham county.
 The inspectors recently made in- spect1Ons in New Haven and Bridge port. Their work has the endorse of Defense and the Council of Ma tional Defense and their methods arc to make careful surveys of the places they visit to discover fire hazards and make recommendations that the con- ditions they find be changed so as to reduce the fire risk as much as pos- sible.
 There are between thirty and thir- ty-f1ve men engaged in the survey They are experts in their line. and let ters have been scnt by the State Coun- ell to the mayors and fire ami police chiefs of the two cities which, it is hoped. will help to make the task of the inspectors easier. The Council also asks the general public to co-op~ crate as much as possible with the inspectors so as to help make their patriotic efforts successful.
 Certain classes of property will not be inspected, notably buildings that are regularly inspected by insurance companies, comparatively isolated pieces of property that are of insignifi- cant value and certain buildings that are classed as hazardous.
 The inspectors will visit the various pieces of property as representatives of the State Council and the State gov ernment. They will be equipped with cards issued by Cover nor Marcus H. Holcomb and counter signed by the State Fire Marshal and Richard M. Bissell of Hartford, chair man of the Defense Council. With these arrangements made for creden- tials, it is expected that the inspec- tors will be welcomed by the property owners to whom they apply and that the latter will cooperate in making efficient the accomplishment of what is considered one of the most important conservation movements set on foot since the start of the war.
 This movement is part of a Nation wide campaign to prevent the waste of the countrS's resources by fire at a time of grave emergency when every waste of property, however trivial it may at first seem, is likely to be the indirect cause of the waste of many lives Tn addition to being a move ment along the general lines of con servation, the elimination or reduc- tion of fire risks, especially in the larger cities, is a step intended to pro- tect plants engaged in the production of war materials, for any small fire may lead to a conf1agration and there are few cities in Connecticut of any size in which a conf1agration would not likely cripple a "war order" fac tory.
 The work has been taken up al- ready in New York State, Pennsylvan- ia, Delaware, Maine and several west crn states, where valuable results have been attained. through the CO., operation of merchants and other owners of property.