The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-01-02

seriously interfered with the up- keep of property, fin spite of the efforts of various land owners to keep their buildings up to date. In our survey, we have vacant houses. practically abandoned. doors wide open, windows found broken, and furnaces and wood- work wrecked. the tendency of the invaders, in most instances, being to destroy and damage property of which they have no legal right to tresDass. Like the police we do what we can to lock up these places, but within short time find them practically in the same dam aged condition.
 One of the principle duties of the office is the investigation of fire. We have been rather forum ate, in that only one serious fire of suspicious nature occurred. Tn our investigation of this particu- lar fire. various witnesses were duly summoned and examined. and an arrest was made. But the learned court held that the evil dence was not sufficient and dis charged the accused, again going to show the difficulties attached to producing sufficient convincing testimony in an arson case. Nevcr- theless during the past few years. through evidence obtained by this office. with the cooperation of the Waterbury detective bureau, vari- ous persons have been convicted of this offense. We are convinced from what we have observed in our work, that city fire marshals should possess the same power in fire investigations as that conferred upon the state fire marshal by the statutes. We question the wisdom of filing fire reports with the state marshal, under tho present ar engagement. A moro uniform fire law for state and city, we think, would be better for all fire in vestigators. and afford improved protection for tho public.
 oil Burner Regulations
 The oil burner is fast making inroads into the heating system of Waterbury. During the year per- mits for 134 power installations have been issued, about the same number as obtained In 1883. Some trouble has arisen on account of the desire of certain contractors to make installations without the formality of filing an application in this office. Every heating unit in Waterbury is under the super vision of the office of the fire mar shal. by a general grant of the powers of the city charter. The regulations include various safety devlscs, such as an emergency con- trol switch at the entrance door to the cellar: low water cut off on steam boilers: safety valves on the oil feed lines; proper covcr- ing of the woodwork near the heating unit, along with other safety measures applicable to each particular case. We think the in- sistence of these means of protec- tion have prevented some fires.
 FumigatiOn
 We are reminding the public of the present custom of fumigating houses by tho use of a poisonous gas. Before this Is done, we in- sist upon the contractor notifying the fire department, and posting q sign on the house, reading, DO not enter; poison gas" This is done as pTccdutloHuTy HltN'Etc 10 the people. and to let us know the true conditions. in case of fire.
 The Toll of Fire
 Let us look back for the time being and observe some of the ex- treme penalties of fire during the past year. Take the cases of Mrs Alter Roscnficld and Mrs Paul Luciano of 110 Bldwell street. Both were burned to death in Mrs Ros- cnfield's home on July 27, 1894. These women were washing clothes with the aid of an electric wash ing machine. A nearby bottle of benzine was mistaken for q bottle of bleachwatcr. and the fumes of the benzine ignitcd from an arc or friction of the machine when the switch of the pump attached to the draining machine was turned on. Both were frightfully burned and died later at the hospital.
 Before this, was the case of