Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1921-06-22
Largely in Their Own Hands.
Est. Adams MESSENGER

The Barton Monitor asks what is
to be done to prevent such fires as
recently swept East Charleston from
the map. 1t says in this connection:
at has been suggested that county
fire warden should be provided for
by law, and that a part of such per-
sons duty should be to organize ru-
raj villages for fire fighting, that he
should educate the people to the ne
cessity of fire protection and urge
such methods of protection and fight
ing as would lessen the havoc when
fire was started. There is virtue in
the suggestion. At least every pa
triotic citizen of every small and ev-
cry large Vermont village should take
some responsibility for the preven-
ton of fire throughout the communi-
ty, for INSURANCE rate paid by all is
the rate established largely through
the carelessness and responsibility
of the few"
Here again we have the tendency
to turn to the law, to find a solution
of our troubles. Yet, when one gets
right down to the nub of this question
IL has to be admitted that if individ-
ual self interest and common sense
do not dictate the necessity of taking
proper protective measures there is
little real likelihood that the law will
overcome such a measure of defcien-
cy. If there are ways for the state
to assist properly, let them be found,
but in the final analysis, the answer
must be Individual
The matter of fire protection in
small villages is not so simple as it
is in larger communities, admittedly,
but nevertheless, there are certain
measures that the smallest communi-
ties might take, and there are certain
building regulations which might be
put into effect which would lessen
the probability of fire disaster. In
cities the increasing tendency is to
make fre-proof roofs compulsory.
Such a regulation is needed to a
greater degree in the village than in
the city, and no one denies that it
is needed in such places.
If anyone started out to make a
survey of the situation a great many
preventative steps would suggest
themselves to the mind. Then in the
matter of actual fire fighting there
is no excuse for community of any
size whatsoever, being completely
unorganized. At the very inception
of blaze much can be done with
IAAOiiASdlo, ctl1O NiSlId anu Cut use
of chemicals would often prevent a
fire reaching considerable proper
tons, and thus, in a measure, the
lack of a water system would be
somewhat neutralized.
But it is doubtful in the extreme if
the creation of a state office such as
is suggested would have real compen-
sating results. About the most such
an officer could do would be to go
around telling village jewellers what
they already know, if they have any
wits at all. He could hardly be en-
powered to make them do this and
that under our. theory of home rule
and home control of taxes. The final
decision would have to be made by
the home people. Village jewellers
know the fire risks they run. Theirs
is the choice between protection and
no protection. 1t may be a little
harsh to say that they have the solu-
ton so far as is humanity possible, in
their own hands, and if they say,
"Kismet, it is fate" what can be
done about it?