Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1922-10-10

Wnpn1nRIOU, 10 80 4
nj frame building construction which.
without the use Of any OF the so-calieo
fre-proofng materials at all, VIII cur
in two the fre hazard 70 wnich wooa
dwelling houses are exposed mas peeu
evolved by engineers employed by the
lumber industry of America. m an
nouncement comes from the National
Lumbar Manufacturers Association,
If Washington. a scientific bureau de-
voted 10 the solution of problems al
fectina the industry which maintains
II.
Not only will the new frame CON
~struction greatly add to the safety
financial and physical. of the future
hom.-builders who adopt IL. 1t IL
claimed. but the discovery will nave
q profound effect upon city building
regulations. with some further re-
f~nernents not deemed necessary In
dwelling houses. the new construction
has been adapted 20 factory and bust
ness buildings. These plans have
been approved by the fire insurance
underwriters. and as a result some
Of the largest cities In the country
I New York AMONG them, are consider
ing readmitting frame construction
into fire districts for years barred 10
wooden buildings Of any sort.
The evolution Of fre-resistive frame
. construction was incidental to a cam
= paign i~naugursted some years ago
: by the lumber industry 10 remove
from wood the single disadvantage
under which Il competed for business
4. A. L,4f1ta, ..,41rfaN~ rynrtNf tor
= many ~years-ever since the invention
/, Of fre-proof building construction. in
fact-lumber has been subjected 10
tho attacks Of the makers Of ire-proof
a materials. Nobody could gainsay the
n cheapness Of wood, nor Its beauty and
comfort. nor even It's durability, since
many OF the old colonial mansions still
a In existence are made Of wood. But
, there has been no getting round the
fact that wood will burn. II you
y built of woodland three-fourths Of al
home builders do use wood-you
simply risked losing our building By
fire. Many an owner Of a beautiful
ar and c~ommodious frame house hai
wished regretfully tina ne could hsv'
afforded to build his home Of fire
g proof 0l6ISfldlF,
IN In ascribing an undue FIRE hazard :,
Of frame construction. the producers o
re hre-proofne invented no new arEu
ment. They merely used what 70
L. years has been common belief-name
ly. that there is a direct relation b.
e. tween the extensive use If fran. con
Of struction In the United States an
It. the enormous annual fire losses Z
re which this country IL subjected. Tire
"a. Of every four buildings in America
re- cities are made Of wood Throughout
The United states has the creates
r. annual fire loss Of any country j
a the world. To assume that one n
Is these facts results from the othe
de seems 70 be only putting two an
two together.
Science and Fire Hazards.
But, like some other American in
dustrfes producing standard com
modities which suffer from advers
.u popular opinion. the hewers and sci
w lers Of wood have been turning IN
cool searchlight Of science upon IN
alleged fire hazard resting upon fran
construction. In this column not lon
ago IL was shown how successful
p the scientist has refuted the opinic
~, that 1t Is dangerous to eat came
es food. Now another group Of scientis
has demonstrated beyond argume
the surprising fact that frame bull
ings. ever as they are construct,
today. are not nearly so subject
fire as buildings of other sorts, i
L Ciffdinp the arael-fr1paa hr4T1If-
which are known az fire-proot.
: To make this demonstration, I
scientists of the Technical and r
II. search Department Of the Nation
Lumber Manufacturers Associate
took the 1921 figures on fires in
,-,~ OF the largest American cities as COZ
piled by the National Board Of r
Underwriters. These figures. 10
sure. show that over half the fires
those cities that year occurred
frame buildings. but the figure ke
its apparent significance when it
set down beside the fact that thre
,, fourths Of all the buildings in the
cities are of frame construction.
every thousand frame buildings the
, was a fraction in excess OF Is mr.,
but the fires in brick and stone bull
ings ran over 81 to the thousand a
in all sorts of buildings other III.
frame % 10 the thousand.
These figures bring out a poi
- which observant fire chiefs have De
emphasizing for a long time-the ha
- ard from fire results not so mu
from the materials Of which a bull
ing is constructed as from what &c
on inside the building. A building m
be made entirely OF steel and bri,
49,, but IL it houses an automobile CARA
or a paint shop or a paper-box facto
or any other f-ire-hazardous industl
'e a FIRE may break out and destroy :
building totally.
Fires Result From CareIessness.
q in The lesson in this for the avera
householder is that he himself a
hot his family constitute a large part
the fire hazard IN his home. Nea,
half the fires in dwelling houses
suit from careleSsness. Faulty CO
struction accounts for nearly all
his rest of them. Fires communicated
dwelling houses from outside sour
still are so few in number as TO be neg
gible. Even the shingle roof, that
and vcrate scapegoat, is eXonerated. Z