Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 February 1918 — Home Town Helps [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Home Town Helps

FO AVOID HAZARDS BY FIRE Hight Kind of Construction and Efficient Inspection Will Prevent Much Damage, Says Engineer. "Proper methods of construction and ‘fficient building Inspection will prerent a very large proportion of the Ires which annually do so much damige in American cities,” says R. S. Whiting, an architectural engineer, who has made a compilation and' careful study of more than 200 building ;odes. Whiting sums up his conclusions thus: “The allowance of ten feet between Buildings in uncongested districts is about the average found in building -odes, although a greater distance is advisable and often specified, and in some cases the space is increased to JO feet or more. If an ordinance limiting the distance between buildings had been provided in the building code 3f Atlanta, Ga., the conflagration of May 21, 1917, might have resulted not so disastrously. It Is next to Impossible for firemen to fight a fire satisfactorily between two burning buildings if the space between them is not wide enough for two persons to pass comfortably, which seems to have been the case in Atlanta.

The width of building lots is a matter that should be carefully thought out and regulated by local authorities, and especially in a congested dwelling house district, and should not be permitted less than 35 feet; better still, platted with a width of from 40 to 50 feet, thus allowing liberal space on each side of every dwelling. “Buildings such as public garages, oil houses and refineries, rendering plants, varnish works, etc., as well as buildings used for the storage or handling of large quantities of combustible material, whether of fire resistive »r non-fire resistive construction, should be erected only in isolated locations, where their contents cannot be considered as a fire hazard for adjoining or nearby buildings.”— . •