Great Falls daily tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1895-1921, 1920-12-01

I
ing than the present one, it seems that
such a phenom enon did once exist. This
was before the fire. Everybody you
meet here tells you SO. Praise any fea-
ture of the city-its gay restaurants;
it's beautiful bay; it's marvellous Golden
Gate park; it's pretty girls; its delicious
fish: it's charming Preside, or its pic
turesque Chinatown-and while the
praise will be pleasantly welcomed, 1t
| will Immediately be qualified with: An,
but you should have seen them-or 1t
before the fire.
The term earthquake" rarely enters
into the conversation when discussing
| the disaster which occurred IN 1906.
The tactful visitor carefully avoids 1t,
and the San Franciscan ignores it. NO
one denies that an earthquake did give
the city slight jar in that momentous
year, but it was the fire which followed
that caused the damage, All that the
quake did was to knock over q few
| lamps and at the same time break the
water mains, thus at one blow causing
the fire and destroying the means with
which to fight it.
In at least one respect, therefore,
the new San Francisco, which rose
phoenix like from the ashes of the old,
is better than it's predecessor. II is
practically invulnerable against fire.
!
thing that could be done has been done
| to prevent another such catastrophe,
and San francisco today is one of the
best fire-protected cities In the world.
| Another quake may knock over as many
| lamps as it pIeases, but the city will
never 60 up in flame as it did before,
because, aside from the fact that most
of it is now largely fire-proof, an 1ntrl-
cate system Of water connection has
been established SO that if the water
mains are broken or fail at one place Or
even at several places, there will stu
/ be plenty of other sources to be tapped
a Complete System.
Shortly after the fire in 1906, bond
| issue Of five million dollars was raised
| for the construction of this system. In
the first place, there is high pressure
water supply, furnishing 25O pounds
water pressure from three storage res
| eryoirs located in the hills Of the city
one at an elevation Of 325. one at 40
/ feet and still another at 100 feet. IN
| these reservoirs twelve million gallons
| of water are stored for fire-fightlng.
| In addition. there are two high-pres-
| sure pumping stations. capable OF pump
/ ing 10000 gallons of water per minute
| each from the bay These stations.
housed in strictly ire-proof buildings,
are so equipped that they could oper-
ate for stretch Of four days. II com
| pletelv shut off from the rest of the
city. The system also has connection
with two steel fire boats IN the harDor
| which can pump water into the high
| pressure hydrants when the supply vi
| fresh water becomes exhausted.
Furthermore. any section Of the CITY
can be cut off from abe rest If it be-
~
| water supply. If a pipe should break
| in any section. this could be Immediately
/ shut off by valves These valves are
I located at every street crossing. 50 that
! the city can be aggregated block at
/ a time.
! Located III various sections, more
/ over, are one hundred eisterns contain
/ my anywhere from 10000 to 100000 gal
| Ions of water each. so that if all the
water mains should break and every
| other source Of supply become exhaust
| ed, the fire department would still have
I these to fall back upon. But even this
/ is not all. The law requires that every
! tank in San Francisco holding five
\ thousand gallons Of water must have q
+ special connection with the city water
/ system In case the fire depar tment
h should need 10 use il. lnasmuch as
! most of the large office buildings have
/ such tanks for supplying running water
| and drinking water to the various of
! fees. they constitute a valuable rein
4 forcement to all the other water re
/ sources
No city has stricter laws on the sub
4 iect Of fire protection than San Fran
cisco Every building of four stories or
more must have fire escape. All two
\ story buildings operated for public use
must be supplied with them, and any
| building over one story in which ten or
more women are employed is required to
be so equipped. Every building in which
oil is burned must be equipped with an
| automatic cutoff or if it hasn't one, the
plant must be under the supervision of
competent person, who cannot be alb
sent more than twenty minutes at time.
Only three types of buildings may be
erected Type "a which is strictly fire
proof; type ''B' or reinforced concrete,
and type &c" consisting Of heavy timber
or steel framework, and mason exterior
| In some sections Of the city shingie
roofs. which are particularly frowned up
pom by the fire department, are prohib-
Iited.
Fire Prevention
In addition to all these precautions
! the city maintains a very efficient fire
/ prevention bureau, which deIugeS the
| the schools with fire prevention Gtera-
ture, and which is now carrying on an
astonishingly comprehensive scheme for
bringing every residence and building il
San Francisco under the immediate su-
pervision of the Fire Department. Ev-
cry city block is now daily investigated
1 by the firemen of its district. On the
first visit, sketch Of the first and sec
ond floors of every house and store and
building is made and turned into the
fire prevention bureau which is gradu-
ally compiling a huge block record. LII
other words a diagram of every building
in the city is to be on file in the fire de-
partment, so that upon the breaking out
Of fire in certain building on Post
street for example, the fire department
can turn to this number in their files and
see exactly what kind Of place it is
where its entrances and flues are, how
many people it contains, what it is used
for.
With firemen patroling the city in the
cause of fire prevention, as policemen pa
troll it in the cause of me-prevention
life and property i'll San Francisco are
| haenminp safer and safer Every LITTLE