OLD DOORWAY AT NEWPORT R.I.
The liability to injury by fire is a hazard inherent to all buildings, and this danger is a constant menace whose threatening destruction of values imposes upon the owner a persistent consideration, which endures as long as the building stands.
As every method of construction, the various mechanical processes and the stock in each stage of manufacture bears some relation to the fire-hazard as a supporter or possible originator of combustion, the engineer whose duties pertain to these matters must necessarily also consider the question of the fire-hazard in the important phase of prevention, as well as the direct application of those engineering problems required in the design and installation of fire apparatus.
The fire-loss is a most oppressive tax, much of which can be abated by the application of well-established means of prevention. In a practical sense, certain fires are to be considered as unpreventable, being caused by exposure to fires in other burning buildings, but there are very few fires whose destructive results might not have been prevented by the exercise of precautions entirely feasible in their nature.
These several topics will be considered in reference to the reduction of the fire-loss on isolated manufacturing property, because the exercise of every possible precaution may not avail anything if the property is liable to be imperilled by fires originating in adjacent buildings.
SUPERVISION.
The prevention of fires must in greater measure proceed from the efficiency of the supervision exercised over the property in the order of the buildings, heed to probable causes of fire, and attention to the fire-apparatus.
In a manufactory there is a wide distinction to be made between to-day's dirt and yesterday's dirt; valuable results may be obtained by an inspection of the whole property made on Saturday afternoon by two men, such as foremen or overseers of rooms, who may be appointed to serve four weeks, their assignment terminating on alternate fortnights. The report should be made on a sheet of paper, divided so as to include all features of order and fire-apparatus in every room.
As property should be watched during the day Sunday, as well as at night, it is under the care of watchmen about five-eighths of the time, and the measure of this responsibility should be clearly understood.
The patrol should be recorded on a watchman's clock, not merely to show that he was not unfaithful, but also to prove that he was faithful.