White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1930-10-17
FIRE AN EVER PRESENT
MENACE ON THE FARM
By Tom L. Wheeler,

By Tom L.. Wheeler,
Editor, The Indiana Farmers Guide
A few evenings ago, while out rid
ing, my attention was called to rec
glow in the sky, and I knew that some
farm house or barn was in the clutches
OF the Fire Demon. Thinking I might
be of some assistance to those ir
trouble, I took the road leading in
the direction of the red glow (not
unlike the Isrealites of old who were
guided by the pillar of fire., and final
ly came upon one of those distressing
scenes all too common in the country.
A barn was in flames, a group Of
neighbors were working with might
and main to save the farm house near
by, for it was too late to check the
red tongues that were eagerly con-
Stunning the barn and it's contents.
Fortunately the wind was blowing "a
way from the house, and when the
conflagration had died down and only
pile of ashes and debris remained
Of what had been a valuable farm
structure, the house, with bistered
sides and warped shingles, remained
to hearten as best it might the sad
dened family.
Every day and night of every year
such scenes as the one described are
enacted in the country districts. One
farm fire every fifteen minutes or
hundred fires every twenty-four hours
is the number recorded. The farm
fire never burns out. Before the smoke
of one fire has cleared away and the
ashes cooled enough to appraise the
loss the wild cry of Fire! Fire! is
heard in another farm community.
The total loss from farm fires
amounts to approximately $150,000,00o
a year in property destroyed and
$500 lives sacrificed to the greed of
the red fiend who marches in the wake
of carelessness and neglect. Every
time the sun goes down nearly half
million dollars worth of farm property
goes up in smoke.
One third of the national fire waste
occurs on farms. And good authorities
tell us that four out of every five
farm fires are preventable.
Lightning, defective chimneys and
heating apparatus, matches and smok-
ing, combustible roofs, spontaneous
combustion, gasoline and kerosene, and
electricity are the causes Of most farm
fires.
During the winter, when stoves, fur
naces and other heating equipment are
in use, when the farmer and his fam
lily do most of their chores after dark
by the light of lanterns, when much
hay, grain, straw and other combust-
bile materials are stored in the build
ings, the hazards of fire are greatly
increased and it is we'll to give con-
sideration to the subject of fire pre-
vention. Not that the subject may be
ignored at other seasons of the year,
for it should not be. The menace OF
fire is ever present on the farm as
we'll as in the city. Whenever fire is
made fore whatever purpose, there
IS always the danger that it will get
out of bounds and become an arch
destroyer.
IF the whole story of the farm fire
oss could be told in detail it would
re one of sorrow and sadness, OF SUI
ering and death, of disappointment
nd Heterogeneous such as has rare
' been heard. 1t would tell of little
l1ildren playing with matches and be-
lg burned to death in the conflagra-
on they had started, Of busy mothers
sing highhly Explosive liquids for
leaning garments and suffering hor-
ible and untime1y deaths in addition
} destroying their homes, of the care
ISIS discard of matches and smoking
laterial with heavy property loss
S result-in fact, the story would
IN up and down the whole gamut OF
uman experience with fire.