The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1921-10-05
FEARFULLY LONG LIST
OF VICTIMS OF FIRE

Last year nearly 10,UOU persons
were burned to death with approx
mately 10000 injured, a large per-
centage of whom were injured perma-
nently and made a public charge on
our citizenship, T. Alfred Fleming, of
the National Board of Fire Under
writer's of New York city told the au-
tomotive section of the national safe
ty council congress in Boston recently.
"a classification of these losses
shows that over 10 per cent are women
and children of school age and under.
This classification shows that the
home and the school have been neg
lected in our great scheme of safety
education. 1t also shows the effec-
tiveness of the general campaign of
safety in the shop and factory.
"Co-incident with this loss of life,
TIE destruction of property during
1920 as quoted by Mr.. w e. Mella-
leo, general manager of the National
Board of Fire Underwriters almost
doubled that of any previous year of
our history, reaching an enormous to-
tai of over $505, 900, 00O-which does
not include the stupendous losses in
forestry, 80 per cent of which is due
to carelessness of citizens. This waste
of our national wealth of nearly one
and one-half millions a day is paid for
by every citizen of the nation. 1t is
generally considered that these losses
are borne largely by insurance COM
panies which is true but insurance
companies are only collecting and dis
tributing agencies and of necessity
are compelled to require increased
rates to cover insurance losses. Ev-
cry product purchased for the home or
for the factory has in it's cost to the
consumer an amount to cover the in
surance and overhead cost. It is the
largest and most unnecessary leakage
OF the country's resources, and is al
most entirely avoidable and unneces-
sary.
"Paul c. Redington of the forestry
division of the United States, in an
address in California recently stated
that of 20,244 forest fires caused by
campers last year, 76 per cent or over
$4,000 were due to smokers careless
ness. 1t would seem that the only
way to obviate these tremendous
losses of life and property would be
to conduct the longest possible con-
tinuous campaign of education fol-
their elimination.
'sThe sections where safety has beer
most neglected are in the home and
school. 1t is an appalling fact thai
not one business man out of every
200 has ever applied the knowledg,
OF safety he has used in his factory tt
his home. He has forgotten to call Z
cabinet meeting" of the members Of
his family and servants to instruc
them how to turn in an alarm, how
to extinguish a fire in its incipiency
how to avoid danger from articles
used in the home and how TO use TIL
extinguisher he has installed. Il
other words, financial value in produc
ton has 1000 per cent more care an,
oversight than the priceless jewels o
human life in the home, and yet tn
nation in only as large or as stroni
as its homes.
similar negligence is shown in tn
care, maintenance and construction O
our schools. A very small percentag
OF the members of our present board
of education have assumed more tina
the financial burden of school activi
ties while they are equally response
BILE for the moral and physical safet
of each child under their care Their
is great disregard of properly estat
lished rules in the construction of neN
buildings and the remodeling of oil
structures. 1t has been found by e1
perts, that over so per cent of tn
school buildings are more unsaf
either structurally or in maintenance
than the Collinwood school when