Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 160, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1910 — FIREPROOFING IMPOSSIBLE. [ARTICLE]

FIREPROOFING IMPOSSIBLE.

Lesson from Recent Conlla*ration In a New Type of Apartment. “There is no such thing as an absolutely fireproof building.” These are the words from an editorial in the Fireman’s Herald, which also adds, “Promised security from fire cannot be guaranteed.” This assertion will come as a surprise and disappointment to the general public, which has come to regard certain modern structures as perfectly safe, so far as danger from fire is concerned, says Popular Mechanics. The article from which the quotation is made was suggested by the -burning out of several floort and the serious damage to others is the recent fire in a large apartmeni house in New York City, acknowledged to be one of the latest and best type. It Is true the exterior of th« building did not present a decidedly wrecked appearance after the conflagration. The expectation that a fire would be confined to the room in which it started, or to that floor, at most, proved a mistake. Apartments contain, and are usually overcrowded with furniture and articles of an extremely inflammable nature. When once these commenced to blaze, the heat was so intense as to extend through the floor above and cause another fire there, and so on to the top. The control and subjugation of a fire in any large building chiefly depends upon the carrying out of the architect’s plan to coniine the fire. This contemplates the dos ing of all doors and windows, but when occupants are making a. hurried exit many of them fail to observe the rule.

As long as our rooms continue to be filled with Inflammable articles Just so long will our fireproof apartments be little more than slow burning, although that condition is a decided step In advance and ordinarily would enable the escape of Its occupants.