The address which this Committee presented to the Joint Conservation Conference sought to set forth some very important facts concerning the excessive fire waste which persists in the United States and suggested remedial measures, which we still firmly believe, if adopted, would materially diminish the grievous loss of life and the tremendous and unnecessary destruction of created values by fire. We therefore beg to reaffirm those suggestions at this time, as follows:
The present fire waste in this country is an unnecessary National calamity, and to reduce it it is essential—
First—That the public should be brought to understand that property destroyed by fire is gone forever, and is not replaced by the distribution of insurance, which is a tax collected for the purpose.
Second—That the States severally adopt and enforce a building code which shall require a high type of safe construction, essentially following the code of the National Board of Fire Underwriters.
Third—That municipalities adopt ordinances governing the use and keeping of explosives, especially inflammable commodities, and other special hazards, such as electric wiring, the storing of refuse, waste, packing materials, etc. in buildings, yards, or areaways, and see to the enforcement of such ordinances.
Fourth—That the States severally establish and support the office of fire marshal, and confer on the Fire Marshal by law the right to examine under oath and enter premises and to make arrests, making it the duty of such officer to examine into the cause and origin of all fires, and when crime has been committed requiring the facts to be submitted to the grand jury or proper indicting body.
Fifth—That in all cities there be a paid, well disciplined, non-political fire department adequately equipped with modern apparatus.
Sixth—That an adequate water system with proper distribution and pressure be installed and maintained. In the larger cities, a separate high pressure water system for fire extinguishment is an absolute necessity, to diminish the extreme imminence of general conflagrations.
The publication by the U. S. Geological Survey of Bulletin 418, known as "The Fire Tax and Waste of Structural Materials in the United States," is worthy of high commendation, and we believe a wider distribution of this pamphlet and the preparation and dissemination annually of similar information, will materially serve to awaken the public to a realization of the enormous values in utilized resources which are destroyed by fire beyond recall, and cause action to be taken by States, municipalities and individuals to enact such laws and regulations as will make for the exercise of greater care and forethought in the preservation of materials produced from our natural resources. It must be evident that the conservation of our forests and mines will fail of its full results if the utilized products therefrom are to continue to be unnecessarily destroyed by fire to a degree that is a National disgrace.
We share the pride of all our fellow citizens in the remarkable growth and prosperity of this country, in the extensive building operations, and in the increased commercial values; but, if we would conserve those natural resources which have been the principal foundations of our success, we submit that it is equally important to adopt and enforce such measures as will lessen the steadily and rapidly increasing fire waste of our utilized resources.
The National Board of Fire Underwriters has for years devoted its energies and activities principally to the reduction of the fire waste and the safeguarding of life and property. Standard rules and lists of hazardous and protective devices and materials are distributed free of charge, the results of the tests conducted at the Underwriters' Laboratories are made known to anyone evincing an interest, a model Building Code, prepared under the advice of experts in construction and engineering, has been urged for adoption in every municipality of the country, and as a result our advice and cooperation are sought in the revision and adoption of the building laws of our cities. Under the immediate direction of our Committee on Fire Prevention, expert engineers investigate the fire-fighting facilities and structural conditions of our cities, submitting copies of the reports, with suggestions for improvements, to the officials of the city visited and to the press; the expense of the work of this Committee alone, for the last six years, has amounted to $432,742.
We have persistently endeavored to influence the introduction of improved and safe methods of building construction, to encourage the adoption of better fire protective measures, to secure efficient organization and equipment of fire departments with adequate and improved water systems, and to have adopted rules regulating the storage and handling of explosives and inflammable products; and we contend that successful efforts along these lines will very largely lessen the fire waste of the utilized resources, the destruction of which at the rate of over $216,000,000 annually (1900-1909, inclusive) is one of the greatest drains upon our natural resources and one which can be corrected, if the Nation, State, city, and citizen will cooperate along the lines indicated above.
The destruction of our utilized resources by fire is increasing at such a rapid rate that the subject of its reduction should be very prominent in the minds of the people. Losses recorded for the past thirty-five years, not including forests, mine or marine fires, total the enormous sum of $4,906,619,240. Unrecorded losses, if obtainable, would materially increase these figures. These annual fire losses run from $64,000,000 in 1876 to $518,000,000 in 1906. In 1907, a normal year, our recorded losses were $215,084,709, and our estimated fire defense cost $241,401,191, or a total amount equaling about 50 percent of the value of the new buildings erected that year in the entire country. In 1908, also a normal year, our ash-heap cost $217,885,850, and the relations of defense-cost and fire loss to new buildings remained about the same. Our contributions to fire that year were over $1,250,000 each day of the year, a sum equal to the operating expenses of our Government, including those of our army and navy, for the same year; and in 1909 we gave to fire over $25,000,000, more than was spent in that year for the same governmental functions.
No one organization can effect the needed reform. Since 1880 the population has increased 73 percent, while the fire loss for the same period increased 134 percent. The National Fire Protection Association and the National Credit Men's Association are spreading the doctrine of reform in the recklessness with which our utilized resources are destroyed by fire. Each organization should be encouraged. Membership is open to all in the former, and in the latter to the business men and merchants of our cities. The work, however, is carried on without State or municipal cooperation and therein lies the chief reason of delayed success.
If the office of State Fire Marshal were created by every commonwealth, and that official and his deputies were given power to enforce good fire-prevention laws, to investigate and if necessary prosecute cases of arson or criminal carelessness in the starting or spreading of fires, to ascertain the cause of every fire, and by the distribution of literature to educate the citizen to the need of care and forethought in the protection of his property, a distinct conserving of the utilized resources in that State would follow.