Imperial Valley press., 1919-02-01
ONE-FOURTH OF
FIRE LOSS DUE
TO SMOKERS
lBv Associated Pressl

new Ofk, Jan. oU-CarSleSS
smokers and users of matches were
responsible for S50,746,556 of the total
loss of $50 ACC, ,O54.worth of property
by 'preventable fires" in the United
States during 1918, according to
members of the Fire Marshals' As
sociation of North America who are
holding a two days conference here
with the national board of fire un-
derwriters beginning today.
Figures showing that the United
States leads the world in property de-
struction by fire were given in the
opening session, the damage per cap
ita being stated as S2.10 annually IN
this country as compared with forty
nine cents in France, thirty-three
cents in England, twenty-eight cents
in Germany, twenty-five cents IN
Italy and Austria, fifteen cents IN
Switzerland and eleven cents in Hol-
land.
Homer Rutledge, of Lansing, Mic
higan, fire marshal of that state, dis
cussed THE Arson Trust" ana
showed how incendiaries had burned
SS,121 SIG worth of property in one
| year during the war, exclusive of the
many other millions destroyed IN
directly by explosions. Ole 0. Roe,
of Des Moines, fire marshal of Iowa,
in an address on "Pyromania," SAID
| education was one of the most et-
| ficient means of combating this evil.
F. R. Morgaridge, of New York,
! formerly assistant fire marshal OF
! Indiana, said most firebugs were ad-'
descent boys and girls. He advo-
Gated proper home and school train
! ing.
Despite the fact that the United
States was at war and that enemy
agents were active, twenty states re-
ported a slight decrease in the num-
Der of cases of arson. While it was
announced as fact that in the first
nine months of war after America
drew tie sword, S43 100000 worth
of war industries went up in smoke,
in only ten per cent of these cases
was there even suspicion of spy
work. "Care.essness" was deslg-
mated as the biggest firebug Of aH.
One grain elvator fire alone de-
stroyed enough wheat to make a
years supply of bread for 100000
soldiers.
Many fires at first attributed to
German spies and pyromaniacs were
/ found, upon investigation, to be due
to other causes. One notable in
stance was spectacular and costly
/ waterfront fire in Brooklyn, the
/ Dow's Stores, in which vast guam
ity OF grain intended for shipment to
! the Allies was DESTROYED. 1t was dis
! covered that the blaze was the result
Of dust explosion caused by spark
either from friction or static cleo
tricity. Another conspicuous in
stance was the Baltimore pier fire
which at first was positively ascribed
to pro German plotters. Rigid in
vestigation by federal agents, accord
/ ing to fire marshals definitely deter
! mined its non-incendiary origin.
Following a reference to the Nor
gan, n. j., disaster in which nearly
one hundred lives were lost and $780,
F, 100000 damage done, delegates
/ spoke of the work accomplished the
/ past year by the fire prevention sec
I This bureau, it was stated, had in
spected more than 1000 large plants
valued at over S10,000,000,0 and in
large percentage of cases the
safety" recommendations of its vol
unteers dollar-a-year engineers were
carried out.
1t was stated that fire prevention
methods adopted for the sixteen large
army cantonments throughout the
the United States had proved most
! effective although these camps con-
sisted of wooden buildings. Hazards
were reduced to the minimum by
proper watchfulness, water protec-
ton, isolation conduiting, and en-
forcement of regulations in regard
to smoking and the use of matches
and lights.
H. c. Brearly, one of the speakers,
said New York City was in imminent
peril Of a great conflagration when
on November Z. after the erroneous
report of the German surrender, a
storm" of paper was thrown from
the windows of business buildings
littering the streets to a depth of
several inches and many miles of
ticker tape covering telegraph and
hazard of the of the first magnitude.
Fire Chief Ken!on, of the New York
City fire department, declared that
if a serious blaze had started at that
time, or on November II, four days
later when the scenes of pandemon-
ium were repeated, all New York
might have been laid in ashes. The
fire departments would have been
crippled also, he said, by the crowds
of traffic congestion in the streets
AS one of the delegates expressed it,
"Thus was invited the greatest loss
of life and property, perhaps, in
American history"
The fire marshals present at the
conference with the underwriters in
cludad five committees on co-opera-
tion between the two organizations
whose efforts are directed to "war
ing on carelessness" and to increas-
ing the efficiency of fire prevention
in the United States. These commit
! tees follow: Incendiarism and AR