Page:Fires and Fire-fighters (1913).djvu/21

 CHAPTER I

axiom amongst fire-fighters is that no definite rules can be formulated, which wholly embody the principles of their craft. It is argued that since no two fires are absolutely alike in all respects, that which would be efficacious in one instance would be absolutely futile in another. This proposition is fallacious. Physicians might just as well advance the theory that since no two individuals are constitutionally alike, it is useless to apply the same treatment for some well known disease, even with those modifications necessitated by physical differences. Of course this is a "reductio ad absurdum," since doctors study their patients scientifically, following general principles resulting from experience, only varied in minor details according to the exigencies of the case. Similarly, notwithstanding differences in construction and occupancy, it is perfectly feasible to fight fires with intelligence born of systematic acquaintance with certain fixed data, and it may be added, with some degree of scientific exactitude. As there are prime factors in the treatment of illness, particularly if it be contagious, such as the removal of the patient to a place where it is almost impossible for the disease to be communicated to others, so it is with fire. The first general principles to be observed include naturally the confinement of an outbreak to as narrow a space as possible, the safety of contiguous property, the prevention of loss of life and the centralization of the outbreak as a whole. To this must be added the concentration upon the point of greatest danger of all the forces at the command of the officer in 1