Evening star., 1924-10-08
THIS AND THAT
BY C.. E. TRACEWELL.

| They move fast, but they are not a
bit excited or flustered, as you or
would be If we suddenly were called
upon to lend a hand.
| Up goes the ladder, up goes a man.
down shoots padded bag. with a
| rope hitched onto ii. What's that
| for? A fireman shows you - he
bitches a slender bright red chemical
hose to the rope.
| Up goes the hose, to be grabbed on
| the roof.
BY this time the street corners are
lined with people Engines are every
where, police are everywhere The
| officers demand press cards from
newspaper men, and honor them
when shown. Only the newspaper
men know what a vast Improvement
this Is over conditions once prevail
ing.
What is the matter now? "The
fires in there"' cries somebody. Sure
enough, it is not on that roof at all,
| although all the fremen could do at
| first was to follow the smoke
| There Is a crash as AK beats
| through the glass of the door of the
shop in the building next door. A
great cloud Of dark smoke pours out,
wreathing up like a pillar against
the stone of the building
| a
| tator.
In plunge the fremen. They know
the fire is in there some place. They
Will find 1T, too, have no doubt of
| that.
| 1t is wonderful the way the red
engines ease into the block, take up
| their positions, get to work. 1t is
| three-alarm confiagration; the de-
| partment is taking no chances with
| an early morning blaze. All around
the block, back on F street, engines
are in their places.
Up in a fourth floor window a
young girl stands weeping 1t is the
smoke that makes her weep. She does
| not appear to be excited at all. and
the fremen, hustling up on their lad
| ders, pay no attention to her
Down on the sidewalk another girl
STANDS weeping. Maybe she is the
owner OF that shop there, the one
that seems to be bearing the brunt of
the fire. No, she is not; she is en-
ployed next door, and the excitement
OF the moment, combined with the
pungent smoke. makes her weep, too.
The cutters begin to fill with wa
ter. A fireman trips over a traffic
sign. which another fireman imme-
diately takes apart and places out of
the way.
More clouds of black smoke, then a.
thinning into an ugly brown. Now
| only haze is Ieft-the fire being
conquered!
A trash pile was responsible.
Probably cigarette carelessIy
thrown did the damage. Whatever
the cause, an adequate conception of
real fire prevention on the part of
certain parties might have prevented
the fire.
The nib Of the whole fire-preven-
ton problem is the individual Tom,
Dick and Harry-every one of US
men, women and children
Fire prevention will be only a ges-
ture-although a very laudable one.
of course-until every one of the
100000 inhabitants of the city is made
to think more about fire.
The responsibility of the indiyid-
| ual is the crux of the whole matter.
Every one must come to regard him
self as member of the Fire Depart
, ment. In some foreign countries
man is heavily fined when a fire
breaks out in his office or home.
1t is not a bad idea, because prob
ably nine-tenths of the fires are
caused by some individual. and if this
individual, in each case, had thought
about fire prevention, the fire never
would have occurred
what greater absurdity, for in
stance, than allowing carelessly
thrown match to set fire to great
building, and then calling out half
the fire-fghting equipment of a city.
when the active thought of the man
who threw the match might have
prevented the whole thing