Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 11, Number 3, DeMotte, Jasper County, 5 December 1940 — LOSS BY FIRES GREAT ON FARMS [ARTICLE]

LOSS BY FIRES GREAT ON FARMS

Fires Are Preventable, Expert Asserts.

By PROF. J. B. RODGERS

(Agricultural Engineering Department. University of Idaho.) Loss from rural fires averages S4OO every minute of the day, a loss the village home owner or farmer might reduce by his own efforts. The farmer in particular, he points out, must be his own building inspector, zoning officer and in an emergency his own fireman and fire chief. If he does a good job in each case, he can do much toward reducing an annual rural fire loss of about $225,000,000. When possible, farm buildings should be in line at right angles to prevailing winds. With this arrangement there is less danger of sparks being carried from one building to another. Roofs of major buildings should be of fire resistant material. Chimneys may be cleaned of soot using a few bricks or rocks in a sack at the end of a long rope. Furnaces, stoves, and stove pipes properly installed and inspected, regularly reduce a common cause of fire. A system of grounded conductors gives protection against lightning. Carelessness in handling lamps and lanterns, in disposing of ashes, in storing and handling gasoline and kerosene and in allowing rubbish to accumulate where it becomes a fire hazard accounts for many farm fires. The U. S. Engineers report that many serious rural fires have been avoided because ladders were at hand and water or fire extinguishers were readily available'. This is a safety measure that is always highly desirable.