Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 February 1914 — FORTY AUTO FIRES SINCE MAY FIRST [ARTICLE]

FORTY AUTO FIRES SINCE MAY FIRST

Fire Marshal Issues Bulletin—Warnings That Should Serve to Lessen Fire Danger. ■More than forty automobile fires, causing a total loss of $8,736, have been reported to the state fire marshal since the establishment of ‘his office last May. But six resulted *n the total destruction of the machines. The causes of Indiana automobile fires, as shown by the° statistics gather by the *flre marshal are: Gasoline explosion—l 2. . Defective wiring—3. Overhead exhaust—l. Carlessness with. matches—2. Adjoining fires—L • '*> Of all the automobile fires reported twenty-two were of unknown origin. “Gasoline is naturally the chief cause of all automobile fires,” said the fire marshal. “Since the explosions which occur not only result in fire .but very often in serious injury to owners, they cannot be too careful in seeing that hazards are minimized. “One of the most dangerous practices followed by automobile drivers is the_use of gasoline for cleaning the machine in a closed garage. This is doubly dangerous if the gasoline is sprayed from a tank by air pressure, since the liquid quickly vaporizes and fills the garage with a highly explosive mixture of air and gas. But one pint of gaso-

ine will make more than 200 cubic ::eet of air very explosive.” The fire marshal -recommends especially that all automobile owners take particular precautions against fire in the garage. No driver should put up his machine, according to the fire marshal, withoutflrst seeing that the lights are out, the engine cool and that there are no sparks resulting from .oose battery connections. Smoking, says the fire marshal, is particularly dangerous about the garage. For extinguishing automobile fire the fire marshal recommends the use of the small pyrene extinguisher. Every automobile driver is advised to carry fire extinguishing apparatus with him in his oar at all times.