Page:Fires and Fire-fighters (1913).djvu/221

Rh flagration in the matter of fire-fighting may appropriately be noticed the following:

A. The importance of front as well as rear and side window protection, fire-resistant if possible, but at any rate, fire-retardant, i. e., wireglass.

B. The necessity of encouraging individual protection by occupants of buildings.

C. The importance of ample water supply and good pressure.

D. The necessity for all fire departments to have a large reserve of apparatus and hose.

E. The importance to fire departments of powerful apparatus with long range.

F. The importance of fire-resisting roofs, roof structures and of well protected skylights.

G. The necessity of the adoption of rigid standards for column protection.

H. The importance of good bricklaying and mortar, with cement in place of lime.

J. The importance of efficient protection to the steel frames in roof attics.

K. The importance in partitions of a better bracing of tile and the need of fire-retardant transoms as well as doors.

In conclusion, perhaps the writer may be pardoned for hazarding the belief that in case of a great conflagration, where the military authorities are invited to assist in the maintenance of order, every effort should be made to assist the Fire Department, and the loss of individual property should be subordinated to the public weal, in accordance with the expressed opinion of the Fire Chief. Thus the policy at San Francisco, by which looting was prevented on any large scale by the indiscriminate employment of the military who were also responsible for the use of explosives, may have saved some thousands of dollars, but this very policy was probably accountable for the loss of millions, by the way in which the skilled fire-fighters were hampered in their movements through official interference, by the un-