CHAPTER XX FIRE PREVENTION FIRE prevention in the United States presents problems of a totally different character from those met with in other countries. In Europe buildings are comparatively low, of limited area, and frequently with wide spaces between them. They are, as a rule, of solid masonry construction, and provided with small window openings. In the United States, on the contrary, business exigencies have not been conducive to the adoption of such precautionary measures. American cities have been built rapidly and as cheaply as possible. Wood, because of its cheapness and abundance, has been used extensively in the construction of floors, roofs, and walls. The congestion of business sections in our large cities has become alarming, and has not been marked by any proportionate effort to prevent conflagrations. Everywhere the tendency has been to regard the needs of the present as much more important than those of the future. Mr. Everitt U. Crosby, at that time Chairman of the Executive Committee of the National Fire Protective Association, wrote, in 1904: "Speaking generally of city districts, intelligent treatment of the individual risk as regards construction and fire extinguishment has been given only in occasional, yet important, instances, and the conflagration hazard has not been provided against. Where municipal building regulations exist, they have been poorly drawn in respect to fire prevention, and sometimes poorly observed. It is apparent the desire for better things must be stronger in the heart of those most interested before any radical reform can take place." With such a state of affairs existing in America, it is only natural that there should result an enormous fire waste, aggregating annually over $200,000,000. In our largest cities property owners are complaining loudly of the heavy insurance tax, and fire-insurance companies are confronted with much opposition from policy-holders and legislatures. The total tax is excessive, but any effort to make the same smaller must be directed toward the reduction of the excessive fire waste in the country. In European countries like France and Great Britain, the average loss per hundred dollars of insurance is only one ninth to one sixth as large as here. Fire underwriters are agreed that it is in the field of "fire prevention" that a solution of present difficulties must be found, and for years the engineers of the insurance companies have studied American conditions in detail, and have devised fire-extinguishing facilities which, if generally adopted, would bring about a decided improvement. Fire prevention has assumed such importance that there has developed a special science which goes under the name of "fire-insurance engineering," and which to-day enlists the services of many capable men, who make it their exclusive business to apply the principles of engineering to the prevention of fire. These men visit all manufacturing and mercantile risks which are insured, and, with the aid of question blanks, carefully examine the construction of the plant, the hazard connected with the occupancy and the materials used, the exposure from surrounding risks, the fire-protection facilities, and all other circumstances attaching to the risk. Many of these inspectors are employed by insurance companies, large industrial corporations, or large insurance brokerage firms. To lessen the expense, however, it is desirable to have as much cooperation as possible in obtain ing information, and to this end, so-called "inspection bureaus" have been organized. These have as members a large number of companies, all of which receive the information collected. Such inspection bureaus are usually so organized that a trained inspector can be provided for each district, and an immediate inspection made, when desired. The benefits to the companies consist in lessening the amount f loss through the proper arrangement and betterment of risks, and in guarding against the assumption of dangerous hazards. The owner of the property, however, is also benefited, since he is advised how he may change his plant so as to lessen the danger of fire. Much valuable assistance is also rendered by the National Fire Protection Association, which was organized for a threefold purpose: "To promote the science and improve the methods of fire protection and prevention; to obtain and circulate information on these subjects; and to secure the cooperation of its members in establishing proper safeguards against loss of life and property by fire." Through special committees this association renders an invaluable service in formulating rules and standards for the guidance of inspectors as well as property owners, regarding the construction and use of various fire-preventive appliances and materials. Laboratories are also maintained by the companies, where, with the advice of the several committees of the National Fire Protection Association, tests are made to verify the merits claimed by the inventors or selling agencies of fire prevention or fire-protection devices, such as fire extinguishers, fire doors, shutters, sprinklers, electrical materials, lighting and heating devices, building materials, etc. In this way the good is separated from the bad, and property owners can be informed as to the standards that ought to be used. Mention should also be made of the work done along lines of fire prevention by some of the larger companies, and The latter, we have seen, especially by the factory mutuals. emphasize fire prevention above everything else, and the remarkably low premium rates or large dividends of these companies, as the case may be, are the result of the rigid enforcement of stringent rules relating to fire prevention. It has also been the practice for fire-insurance engineers, usually acting in cooperation, to visit the large cities of the country, and carefully inspect and report on the water supply, the fire department, the conflagration hazard, and all other important local conditions. "Fire prevention" involves two lines of effort, namely: the prevention of the origin of fires, and the prevention of the spread of fires when once under way. It thus becomes necessary to study, first, the use of fire-extinguishing and fire-notification facilities, and second, the planning, construction, and occupancy of buildings with a view to reducing the fire loss to the minimum. FIRE-EXTINGUISHING FACILITIES Standpipes and Water Pails.-Every building should be supplied with fire-extinguishing facilities in proportion to its area and height. Standpipes should exist, with siamese or double connections, for the use of fire engines in the street; and at the windows there should be hose outlets, so as to make unnecessary the carrying of hose upstairs. In high buildings internal standpipes should exist, supplied from roof tanks supported on iron beams. According to the Universal Mercantile Schedule, the presence of an internal standpipe with tank supply will mean a reduction of 2 per cent in the occupied building rate, while the presence of an external standpipe with siamese connection for the use of the fire department will mean another reduction of 1 per cent. Of fundamental importance in mercantile risks is the presence of a proper supply of fire pails filled with water. "The best fire appliances, strange as it may seem," writes Mr. F. C. Moore, "are the cheapest pails filled with water ready at every staircase, and for the reason that every one knows how to use a pail of water, while the average person, especially in the hour of excitement and danger, does not understand patent fire-extinguishing appliances, and might not know how to turn on the valve of the standpipe and bring the hose into action. Even in 'manufactories, where cool-headed mechanics might be supposed competent to handle fire apparatus, more than 65 per cent of all the fires are extinguished by pails of water." How highly underwriters regard these simple but effective appliances may be judged from the reduction in the fire rate, which their presence secures. If six filled pails of water exist for every 2,500 square feet of floor area, a 5 per cent reduction in the occupied building rate is allowed. Since fire pails cost about $4 per dozen, the saving in the rate constitutes a very material return on the capital invested. Thus, in the case of a manufacturing risk which the writer has in mind, the value aggregated $300,000, the area 50,000 square feet, the rate 1 per cent, and the total premium for full insurance $3,000. To secure the reduction of 5 per cent in the occupied building rate, or $150, requires the provision of six fire pails per 2,500 square feet, or 120 pails for the 50,000 square feet of area in the building, at a cost of about $40. In addition to this saving, amounting to several times the capital invested in the fire-extinguishing appliance, there is also the added protection against the important risk of loss in time and business, which would result from a fire on the premises. Fire-Notification Facilities.—Among the remaining types of fire-extinguishing apparatus may be mentioned public and private water-works systems, post hydrants, a public and private fire department, three-gallon carbonic-acid chemical extinguishers of approved type, playpipes, span |