Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 229, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1911 — FIRE PREVENTION DAT APPROVED BY GOVERNOR. [ARTICLE]

FIRE PREVENTION DAT APPROVED BY GOVERNOR.

Chief Rxecnttve Believes That India* Should Learn to Prevent Fires— Suggests Observance es Oct. *. Indiana will be one of five states to observe October 9 as “fire PreventionDay,” and *to this end Governor Thomas R. %farshall has issued a proclamation calling on the citizens of Indiana to participate in the event The date selected is the fortieth anniversary of the great'Chicago fire, and the observance of a specified day is a part of a nation-wide program of education to reduce the fire losses in the United States. Indiana li to participate in this campaign through the enterprise of the Indianapolis Trade Association, this organisation having volunteered to co-operate with many o£her influential commercial bodies throughout the country. The first step bras- the presentation of the plan to Governor Marshall, who immediately • gave it his hearty endorsement. “Efficiency in fire prevention is not’ commensurate with efficiency fn fire fighting,” said Governor Marshall. “Indiana has learned how to discover and extinguteh a fire, but it has not learned yet how to prevent one. The property loss by fire in this state for the year 1910 amounted to approximately $5,0001000. Much of this might have been saved had our methods of prevehtion been as efficient as our methods of extinguishment

“This loss in Indiana is a part of a steady annual growth in fire waste throughout the United States amounting to . a total of $214,003,300 in the year 1910. We have devoted ourselves as individuals and as a state to the task of preventing flood, disease, crime, immorality and other ills which tend to kill and destroy. It is more than time that we devote ourselves • ’ , . o. . to the prevention of fire, the most common, and the most destructive, perhaps of all. ' “Fires are easily preventable if simple paths Of knowledge are followed. More thought of rat and loose match, the neglected flue and the oily rag in a dusty corner will capitalise itself in dollars. Therefore, to the end that we may conserve not only our property, but our lives, and safeguard them to the best of our ability, I do hereby proclaim October 9, as Fife Protection Day in the State of Indiana, and do call upon all citizens on that day to give personal attention to the removal of rubbish and debris from their premises; to setting their heating appliances in safe and proper condition for winter use; to examining chimneys and flues that breakage and cracks may be properly repaired, and that on all other days, as well as this day, they continue the burning of rubbish and combustible refuse and the depositing of rags' and grass and other articles which by heat cause Spontanious combustion. . “I alto suggest and recommend that on this day instruction be given to the children In the public schools with reference to the fire hazard of matches, gasoline and other volatile oils, and that simple methods of fire prevention and rescue work be taught”