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NEW YORK, DECEMBER 25, 191-5
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I A MAN'S SIZE JOB IS A FIRE CHIEF'S |
The Propagation and Enforcement of Fire Prevention an I
Important Part of His Duties—What Carelessness Has Done 1
By WILLIAM GUERIN
Deputy Chief New York Fire Department (Retired) and Acting Chief Bureau of Fire Prevention*
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FROM the day that fire extinguish¬
ment was made the serious work ot
a lifetime, rather than the occasional
duty of the volunteer, fire prevention has
been the handmaiden of fire fighting. For
the man who had the serious work ot
fighting fire as his daily task leariied from
each fire some lesson to make his future
work easier by either preventing similar
fires occurring in the future or limiting
the opportunity of fire to spread if it oc¬
curs from like causes.
The words of the earlier fire chiefs
were not heard when they spoke of fire
prevention measures, as it was deemed
that the architect and builder was the
men to solve such problems, but this was
a mistake, for the architect and builder
seldom saw a building wreck after a
fire, except to remove it as quickly as
possible, for time is money.
What the Fire Chiefs Saw.
The fire chiefs "on the job" saw what
happened to granite and stone founda¬
tions when attacked by fire and then
hose streams. It was the fire chief who
saw a seven-story factory 200 feet
square, without a division wall, become
a smoking wreck in forty-five minutes,
and this in the heart of New York City
with a fire department second to none
doing its best to save the building.
These are the men who have clamored
for better construction, changes in
buildin.g laws to safeguard life and prop¬
erty and reduce the "ash heap."
In later years a change has come
about, and in nearly every community
having a paid fire department the chief
has a place in the counsels of the com¬
munity when considering the laws and
ordinances relative to construction and
safeguardin.g of buildings from fire.
To-day the progressive chief of a fire
department feels the need of fire pre¬
vention work to be as great as that of
fire extinguishment,' for preventing fires
means fewer fires, savin.g of lives, less
interruption of business and fewer homes
destroyed.
Importance of Educational Methods.
There are many things to do to make
fire prevention a success: The first and
greatest is a carnpaign of education to
impress on each individual in a com¬
munity his or her personal responsibility
for a fire occurring as a result of care¬
lessness pure and simple.
Tn New York City durin,g the year
1914, more than 8,000 fires occurred from
the causes I have here enun-ierated. and
every one of them preventable by using
a little care.
Carefulness is a moral quality, and
you can never legislate it into the in¬
dividual—you must teach it to him. Of
course we can have le,gislation that will
punish the careless one, but we don't
want to wait until every careless act has
been punished to bring about our reform
of the fire waste.
I_ dwell strongly on the matter of edu¬
cation for several reasons, chief of which
is that a careful body of men can oper-
*Proni a paper read betore New 5'ork Chap¬
ter ot Natinn.al Fire-Prevention Association,
CHIEF GUERIN (retired).
ate a powder mill in a frame building
for an indefinite period of time without
a fire occurring, if sufficient care is ex¬
ercised, while on the other hand in the
year 1911 in New York City 146 lives
were lost by fire in a buildin.g admitted
to be of fireproof construction except for
the wooden floors and trim, neither of
which contributed materially to the
origin or spread of the fire. The build¬
ing had adequate standpipes and hose,
and the business carried on was women's
shirtwaists. This fire, like thousands of
others, was caused by an act of care¬
lessness, throwing away a lighted
cigarette.
What Carelessness Did.
The fire that destroyed the Equitable
Building in New York City, where a
chief officer, lost his life, as well as some
of the employees of the building, was
caused by carelessly throwing away a
lighted match.
Now, the means of education are ob¬
viously the schools, the lecture centers,
the boards of trade, the manufacturers'
associations, the merchants' associations,
the public press, and all means available
to bring the matter home to the people.
There can be no ceasing in this cam¬
paign of education, for our people are
prone to forget, so much so that to save
their eternal souls they have to be
preached to at least once a week, and
in some denorninations oftener.
There arc other reasons why the cam¬
paign of education is so necessary in
the elimination of the fire waste.
The State and the Home.
In New York City a record has been
kept monthly, and consolidated each
year, showing in what class of buildings
fires occurred, and at what point in thc
building the fire started. This report,
both monthly and yearly, shows that
more than sixty per cent, of all fires
occur in the homes of the people.
We do not hesitate to enter a store, a
factory or hotel and order the removal
of rubbish, the safeguarding of a dan¬
gerous condition, or the ceasing of a
dangerous practice, because these places
are "affected with a public interest" and
the police power of the State unhesi¬
tatingly compels obedience.
But in the homes of the people we
have a different proposition. We have
inherited an Anglo-Saxon civilization
liased on personal liberty and the sacred-
ness of a man's home, and the State
pauses on its threshold, and only crosses
it without permission when a felony
has been committed or pestilence is
within. Therefore, the people in their
homes may only be reached by educa¬
tion.
Our next step is to secure adequate
building codes suitable for the needs of
each community—not too radical, but
giving an adequate and reasonable pro¬
tection.
Uplifters' Demands Too Radical.
When the State of New York was im¬
pressed with the need of better fire pre¬
vention laws, it fell a prey to the radi¬
cal demands of well meaning but unin¬
formed reformers, resulting in some laws
that were of doubtful constitutionality,
and others that bore heavily on owners
of property, out of all proportion to the
supposed benefit to the occupants of the
buildings.
In a recently proposed building code
for ,general use, it was stated that "all
buildin,gs exceedin,g 75 feet in height"
should have all windows glazed with
wire glass.
While I am fully aware of the value
of -wired glass to protect from exterior
exposures, I am sure that H-inch com¬
mercial polished plate glass is sufficient
protection to guard against any verti¬
cal hazard from fire coming out of l'>w-
er windows, and the latter costs but one-
lialf the price of polished wire .glass.
I witnessed a test where the 'i-inch
plate .alass was subjected to 1,300 de¬
grees Fahrenheit, rising from zero to
that temperature in thirty-two minutes,
and held at that temperature for ten
minutes without a break occurrin.g. I
have since been informed of tests going
to a much higher temperature without
failin,g.
Conservativeness a Duty.
Conservativencss in such matters is a
duty of the really progressive fire chief.
The storage, sale, transportation and
use of combustibles and explosive ma¬
terials has entered largely in the affairs
of our cities, and suitable regulations
governing these matters are necessary.
Tlie scope of such re.gulations will nat¬
urally vary with needs of the different
communities. New York City has an
elalioratc set of ordinances on this sub¬
ject, and well it mi.ght, for the daily use
of dynamite in that city is many tons,
to say nothing of the thousands of .gal¬
lons of .gasoline.
The latest acquisition to this_ end is
the approved liquid gas fire extinguish¬
ers, which will readily extinguish gaso¬
line fires, electric arcs, paint fires, and
all those fires occurring in what are
known as the "extra hazardous ma-