The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1918-02-22
PREVENTABLE BLAZES BURN
FOOD AND FARM WEALTH

Millions of dollars worth of agricul-
tural wealth--much of it foods de-
stroyed by fire in the United States
every year. At normal prices and
with an average crop it would take
the value of the greater part of the
potato crop. of the country to offset
all that is lost annually through the
fires on farms.
This is a dead loss to the nation
for the fact that most individual los
ers are partially reimbursed through
insurance does not in the least reduce
the drain on our national. resources
and it is loss that is largely pre-
ventable. Simple ways to reduce this
great waste are suggested in Farm
ers' Bulletin 904, Fire Prevention
| and Fire Fighting on the Farm is
sued for free distribution by the Unit
ed States Department of Agriculture.
The fire bucket, according TO the
writers of the bulletin, is the Oldest,
simplest and cheapest fire extinguish
er, and should be in every farm build
ing and home not equipped with more
elaborate fire fighting equipment.
NUultu DOtbOHu DuChctS btSi.
Any kind of a bucket filled with wa
ter and placed handily is good, but
special fire buckets with rounded
bottoms like kettle are best. There
is no temptation to use such buckets
for ordinary purposes and they are
much more likely to be left hung on
the brackets or in the round holes
cut for them in shelves. ANY kind of
fire buckets should be specially paint
ed or labeled and never used for any
purpose other than fire fighting.
They should be placed near entrances
and near the top of stairways or lad
ders where they can easily be reach
ed on entering the building or loft
Several buckets nested in barrel Of
water are an effective device.
Needless to say, the fire buckets
should always be kept filled by rcplac-
ing the water lost by evaporation.
If the buckets are covered water
will not evaporate so rapidly nor get
full of dust and dirt and become Of
fensive. Water can be kept from
freezing in all except very low tenn
peratures by adding couple pounds
of common salt to each bucketful. A
single bucket of water may check
fire when the delay in getting water
from a pump would allow the blaze to
become uncomfortable. In buildings
long way from a water supply,
cask or tub of water from which to
refill buckets is very desirable.
There is a right and wrong way
to throw water on a fire. Don't be-
come excited. Spread the water with
sweeping motion all over the flaming
material. Water thrown hastily may
miss the blaze or fail to spread prop
erly over the burning material. A
fire chief of an eastern city at dem
onstration put out an angry fire of
oil-soaked material by calmly apply
ing ten cups of water where they
would do the most good.
The bulletin mentioned also dis
cusses common causes of fires such as
carelessness with matches, kerosene,
and gasoline, and in burning brush or
rubbish, defective fiues and overhead
ed stoves, flying sparks and cindcrs,
spontaneous combustion and so on,
and makes suggestions as to how con-
flagrations thus caused may be pre-
vented. Attention is given also to
methods of extinguishing other than
water-chemical, dry-powder and
"hand renade"-devices as well as
sand and sawdust.