The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-10-10
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information, Bureau
FREDERIC J. HAsKIN. DirectsE.
Washington, d. O
FIREPROOFING FRAME BUILD

type or frame Du1l01nS construction
which, without the use of any of the
so-called fire-proofing materials at
all. will cut in two the fire hazard to
which wood dwelling houses are ex-
posed, has been evolved by engineers
employed by the lumber industry of
America The announcement comes
from the National Lumber Manufac-
turers' association, of Washington.
scientific bureau devoted to the solu-
ton of problems affecting the indus
try which maintains it.
Not only will the new frame con-
struction greatly add to the safety, fl
nancial and physical, of the future
home-builders who adopt it, it is
claimed, but the discovery will have
profound effect upon city building
regulations. With some further re-
finements not deemed necessary in
: dwelling houses, the new construction
has been adapted to factory and bust
ness buildings. These plans have been
approved by the fire insurance under
writer's, and as a result some of the
largest cities IN the country, New York
among them, are considering readmit-
ting frame construction into fire dis
buildings of any sort.
The evolution of fire-resistive
| frame construction was incidental to
a campaign inaugurated some years
ago by the lumber industry to remove
from wood the single disadvantage
| under which it competed for business
in the building materials market. For
many yearsHever since the invention
of fire-proof building construction in
! fact-lumber has been subjected to
| the attacks of the makers of fire.
proof materials. Nobody could gain
| say the cheapness of wood, nor its
beauty and comfort, nor even its dur
| ability, since many of the old colonial
mansions still in existence are made
| of wood But there has been no get
ting around the fact that wood will
bburn If you built of woodland
three-fourths of all home builders do
use wood-you simply risked losing
your building b. fire. Many an owner
of beautiful and commodious frame
house has wished regretfully that he
| could have afforded to build his home
| of fire-proof materials.
In ascribing an undue fire hazard
| to frame construction, the producers
| of 1re-proofing invented no new argu-
ment. They merely used what for
years has been common belief
! namely, that there is a direct rela-
| ton between the extensive use of
States and the enormous annual fire
| losses to which this country is SUBJ
| jected. Three of every four buildings
in American cities are made of wood
| turnout. The United States has the
| greatest annual fire loss of any coun-
| try in the world. To assume that one
| of these factors results from the other
seems to be only putting two and two
together.
| Science and Fire Hazards.
| But, like some other American in
dustries producing standard COM
modities which suffer from adverse
| popular opinion, the hewers and SELL
a-- Of f1Tr INC f1n
cool searchlight of science upon the
alleged fire hazard resting upon frame
Econstruction. In this column not long
iago it was shown how successfully the
scientist has refuted the opinion tina;
it is dangerous to eat canned food
! Now another group of scientists has
demonstrated beyond argument the
surprising fact that frame buildings
even as they are constructed today
are not nearly SO subject to fire as
buildings of other sorts, including the
steel-frame buildings which are known
as fire-proof.
TO make this demonstration, the
scientists of the Technical and Re
search Department of the Nationa
Lumber Manufacturers association
took the 1921 figures on fires II
eighty-three of the largest American
cities as compiled by the Natioria
Board of Fire Underwriters. Thes'
figures, to be sure, show that ovel
half the fires in those cities that veal
occurred in frame buildings, but thu
figure loses its apparent Significance
when it is set down beside the fac
that three-fourths of all the building
in the eighty-thPee cities are of franz
construction. To every thousand franz
buildings there was a fraction in ex
cess of sixteen fires, but the fires il
brick and stone buildings ran owe
, twenty-four to the thousand and il
I i L..
twenty-five to the thousand.
These figures bring out a poin
which observant fire chiefs have beel
emphasizing for a Yong time-th
hazard from fire results not so mucl
from the materials of which a build
ing is constructed as from what goe
ON inside the building. A building ma,
be made entirely of steel and brick
but if it houses an automobile garag
or paint shop or paper-box fac
: tory or any other fire hazardous in
| dustry, fire may break out and de
stroy the building totally.
Fires Result From Carelessness.
The lesson in this for the averag
householder is that he himself an,
; his family constitute a large part o
= the fire hazard in his home. Nearl
half the fires in dwelling houses re
suit from carelessness- Faulty con
struction accounts for nearly all tn
l.
? dwelling houses from outside source
are so few in number as to be negligi
l BILE. Even the single roof, that ia
: vorite scapegoat, is exonerated. tn
1 investigation is showing that whe.
the cause of a dwelling house fire i
given as sparks on roof" the trutl
usually is that a defective chime
!, was the ineendiary. Poor mortar, an
4 an insufficient quantity of that, wa
probably used in the first place. TIL
b flues in the chimney were unline
e with tile. In time a brick drops on
of the chimney, and the adjacen
shingles catch fire at the first oppor
Itunity.
The new building plans develope
= by the National Lumber Manufac
= turers' association are designed to Gu
= the frame-c construction fire hazard i
= two, even cpnceding that the hous
e occupants continue their carelessnes
r The principal features of the me-
g type of construction are designed I
make wooden buildings sIow-burnin.