Evening star., 1923-10-13

uninterrupted statistics are SO dry
that they are extra hazardous from
fire-risk standpoint. What does 1t
mean to say that the United States
burns UP. in one year, S521.se1, 600.
and that three-fourths of-the fires are
due to inexcusable carelessness?
1t should mean that every year that
loss equals what 1t would cost to
build five concrete highways from
the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. A
$4,000. and rather than build 10000
such schools annually we, literally.
have the money to burn" Yet 25
per cent of our citizens are illiterate.
Every seven or eight years the fire
loss would cover the soldiers adjust
ed compensation. with no need of a
sales taX-but, instead, the careless
keep the home fires burning"
That ancient villain Nero fddled
while Rome burned, yet, extenuat--
Rome afire. The American public
beats Nero as an incendiary, however
1t may rank with a violin. Running
close second to Canada, 1t beats the
rest of the world.
The San Francisco disaster account
ed for the peak Of the national fire
loss in 1906, which jumped from $17o,-
100000 in 1905 to $450.00o.oo0 in 1906.
Then the loss dropped back in 1907
to only 100000, 900. and 1t zigzagged
around 5000. 100000 for the next ten
years. Suddenly during the war. 1t
jumped TO $320.000,000 in 1913. and
on up to $420,OoO.0 900 in 1922 and on
ON up to s521.S6o.0oo for the fiscal
year 1928. These figures are given
by the National Fire Underwriters.
k1x y y
The above refers to the nations
burning. The city of Washington
could add, annually. seventy miles of
asphalt streets or build forty new schools
with what 1t burns up. II II dared
discharge its able fire department
and cancel it's expensive insurance II
could add teachers to all those forty
wage" or better.
In the last year, through careless
ness, twenty-niHe families of Wash
tngton stored their live Goals in
wooden containers, and called out the
fire department. Automobile owners
neglected to keep their machines in
order. so backfiring. wire short-cir-
cutting or gasoline ignition caused
230 fires-some with fatalities. Burn
ing trash in back yards, instead of
notifying the street department TO
remove It, caused SAT blazes in homes;
sooty chimneys. 279 fires; boiling over
of fats while cooking. As fires;
storing matches in paper boxes, or
within reach OF children, 343 fires
some babies burned; carelessly aim
ing lighted cigars or cigarettes at
awnings or waste paper baskets. 19S
blazes; defective heating plants. 140;
sparks from bonfires and chimneys.
las fires; patriotic fireworks. al
though forbidden by law. fires, on
last July 4.
During the year victims burn
ed to death in the city; 81 not
members of the fire department
were injured by fires; 14S firemen
injured. In 1922 about 1000 alarms,
in the fiscal year 1923 an increase
of 795 alarms Loss in 1928, $2.074.-
O96, an increase of $4,000, which
is over 25 per cent, as compared with
the fiscal year 1922.
X \ \
The secretary of the National Fire
Protection Association, Franklin H.
Wentworth, says: Our annual waste
of S5 per capita means that every
man, woman and child pays S5 a year
for fire waste. That means that a
man with the average family--a wife
and three children-pays $25 a year.
THE United States government in Its