The Omaha guide., 1947-09-27
Huge Fire Losses Spur Observance
OF fire Prevention Week

Fire destruction in the United States threatens to break
all records his year.
a. the nation and The Omaha Guide prepare to toob-
serve Fire Prevention Week, October 5 to Ii, by prociama-
ton 81 President Truman, the local fire department called on
all citizens to join in the annual chy-wide drive against
fire. t-A-
Fire Chief B. Meister cited estimates of the National
Board of Fire Underwriters that U. S. fire losses may exceed
s7OO.OOO.OO by the end Of this year, the highest in U. ;.
history. .---AAE
Ibis 500. 900, 900 loss will be twice the DESTRUCTION
caused by the burning of San Francisco, and nearly three and
ene-halfti mes the devastation done in any yearot the Luft-
waffe's bliz on Britain.
Deaths by fire also may set a new record with the ooz
deaths in the Texas City disaster added to the 10000 annual
death toll. . @-14AA'
According to estimates made by President Iruman's
conference on Fire Prevention, the United States suffers
more than 83l 900 fires annually, an average OF one ire
every 80 seconds. To combat this menace, the nation has to
maintain a huge army of municipal fire fighters-6UO'VOVo II
them-to guard life and property.
By presidential proclamation and by order OF state gov
ernors, Fire Prevention Week will be observed in nearly IT,,
600 communities in effort to focus public attention on the
need to save lives and resources fronA fire.
PRESIDENTS PROCLAMATION
Whereas. each year preveniable fires claim the lveA Of
thousands of our citizens, both young and old, and cause per-
ma.ent disability or painful injury to countless others; and
W CTB IL UtoLu IIlOA ny AHS ~ 80 ~l
created resources has almost doubled during the past decade.
and cost this nation more than five hundred and sixty million
dollars in the year 1916; and
Whereas, this ravage, if undated, threatens an even
more ca. amitous loss of life and waste of material wealth; and,
Whereas, the program promulgated at the President
Couse-,aeo on t.r, 4 r. sens.on held at Washington; in May,
l947, is designed to- assist in siemming the tide of DEATH a~l
destruction from fires:
Row, therefore, /, Harry S. Truman, President Of the
United States of America, do observation-disclosures the week be-
ginning Octobr 5, 1917, as Firq!Prevention Week.
l earnestly request every citizen to eliminate all possib c
sanscs of destructive fire in his home and in his place ofbusi-
ness, and urge that vigilanee| against fire bo extended be-
yend Fire Prevention Week and bg zealously continued ali
throughout the year. l invite State and local governments,
the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, the National
Fire Waste Council, the American National Red Cross, bust
ness and labor organizations, churches and. schools, civic
groups, and agencies of the press, the radio, and the motion
picture industry to cooperate fully in the observance of Fire
Prevention Week with the OBJECTIVE of initiating a fire pre-
vention campaign continuing throughout the year. l also
direct the appropriate agencies of the Federal Government,
to assist in very feasible way in arousing the public to the ser
iousness of the fire problem.
In Witness tchereOf, l have hereunto set my hand and
caused the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington this fourteenth day of
August in the year of our Lord nineteen
hundred and forty-seven, and of the In.
dependence of the United States of Amer.
lea the one hundred and seventy-second.
HARRY S. TRUMAN
Mechanical grocery store that eliminates clerks, cash re-
gisters and cashier-checkers has been patented by Memphis