Arizona republican., 1921-04-16

In one of the most interesting and instructive addresses ever delivered in Phoenix, E. w. Stevens, chief of
 the fire prevention bureau of the Pa
 cific coast, brought home to city of ficials and members of the Kiwanis and Rotary clubs yesterday the crim- nal carelessness which permits the great loss of life and property an
 nually through fires that easily might have been prevented.
 The address was given at the weekly luncheon of the Rotary club
 held at the Woman's club. The Phoe-
 nix city officials and Kiwanis club members were the guests of the Ro- tarians.
 MT. Stevens was introduced by
 Jack Lyman, president of the Tucson Rotary club, in which city Mir Ste vens had made a like address the
 previous day which, according to Ly- | man, was one of the finest ever l heard there. This in some measure i prepared the audience for the splen- i did tale to follow.
 Mir. Lyman told how MT. Stevens
 had been in the fire fighting and fire
 preventing business since he was 21 1 years old, when he joined the Port
 land, Ore, fire department, working up to the position of chief He had h'e'fNQ iAfOS, -hI- 1%y Htdll ue- clared, than one could count on the fingers of both hands.
 After getting in right with the
 audience by declaring that he had
 come all the way from San Francis
 co to visit Phoenix, the speaker pro-
 ceeded to make some straight from 1 the shoulder statements.
 You have a rotten fire record in
 Arizona" MT. Stevens declared. ''Oi
 of the worst in the United States
 The National Board of Fire Un- 1 derwriters, which I represent, does
 not make fire rates. It is a service
 organization. This lecture is a part
 of the service; to improve fire pro- lection and thus to reduce insurance
 rates. How many like to see a fire
 inspector come around? Not many
 Suppose plumbing inspector called
 at your house and went carefully
 over all your plumbing and told you
 just what you needed to improve it
 and then went away and did not
 send in bill. You would have his
 head examined. That is just the service the fire inspectors are doing
 According to starIstics there is z fire in every building in the United
 States once in IT years. If you have not had yours yet. just have pa. tience and it will soon come.
 I we <AIlCllCdiS oit dl1llCleu WILL i, pyromania. We stand around ant ? smile and have a good time. There
 is only one person there with a Ions : face. You needn't have fires. Yol can stop them. Formerly Portland
 had Arizona crowded off the maj
 in the number of fires. Finally i |, got so bad that the insurance com Y panies increased their rates Ina got a rise out of the business men # They a l1nd a I . ing to fire the chief of the fire de , partment. But it wasn't the chief f fault. He had been pretty busy put . ting out the fires the people had , started.
 , Three hundred and fifty million l dollars in property in the United
 States wa lost by fire last year , Twenty three thousand lives were l lost. l say that is too much to pa. g for something which can be pre- a vented. In Portland, after the peo
 pie had been aroused to action, the e determined to stop this great loss e In two years work in Portland tn n fire loss had been reduced from g, f 100000 to $200,000. If half of you : city was destroyed by fire tonigh a you would stop and think. But S don't want you to wait for that Q MT. Stevens referred to the grea q Iroquois theater fire in Chicago an 6 told something that was not gener . ally known; that just after that the e ater had been completed he. in com d pany with the Chicago fire inspecto
 was sent to that building to inspec s it. They were met at the door. You are not going to inspect thi . building,' they were told. This a fireproof building''
 a There was no law at that tim = the speaker said, to compel the owT ,l ;. CT to admit the inspector, and the !. went away Shortly afterward tf Y fire came and 560 lives were To: . because of criminal carelessnes Il which might have been prevente u Since then Chicago has passed law U which make a similar tragedy in st possible.
 II There is nc such thing as a fire ,s proof building,' declared MT. St. le vens.
 "a Declaring that it is criminal it manufacture and sell any match bl
 a safety match, the speaker -enun N erated many of the acts and cond ,, tions which cause fires, such as leal al ing matches where children can g III them, waving a lighted match an 'l then throwing it away, thinking it I'll be out; having celluloid articles IS the house, throwing -called "colt Il ashes in wooden receptacles, permi z. ting rubbish in back yards and bas oi ments, running stove pipes throus m frame partitions. building unsa n chimneys, running extension hgl Tn cords over metal hangers, wrappil | 1Nx,~,l :.