FIEE'S HAVOC 267 



units as possible. Fire can then do damage only in some small space 

 in which it originates. The whole secret of fire-fighting is this isola- 

 tion, this keeping of fire within the narrowest possible confines, where 

 it can readily be extinguished and by any employee of a building with- 

 out having to call out the fire department. Further, my perfect build- 

 ing would have all of its exposed windows or narrow alleys and streets 

 wire glazed in metal sash. What is the use of stout brick walls if you 

 provide openings for fire every few feet and offer no greater barrier in 

 those openings than wooden sash and sheet glass ? Forty-four per cent, 

 of our entire fire loss is attributable to this lack of proper window pro- 

 tection. In San Francisco, nearly all the loss was traceable to that 

 same cause, because after the earthquake fires only originated in a 

 comparatively few buildings but spread from one to the other via the 

 window route. My interior decorations would be of marble or metal, 

 or even plain plaster tastily ornamented in color, anything rather than 

 the heavy wooden wainscoting, wooden floors, beamed ceilings and all 

 that sort of thing that means just that much well-oiled fuel or rather 

 kindling for a fire. Such is a really fire-proof building. It is a type 

 that has proved its value time and time and again. It is nothing new 

 and untried ; it is not a mere theory. The great trouble has been, how- 

 ever, that some one item or other has been neglected in our existing 

 so-called fire-proof buildings. In one, the windows are unprotected, 

 though everything else is well done; in another the elevator wells are 

 open, some one thing that vitiates the whole, for, remem))er, that like a 

 chain, whose strength is equal only to its weakest link, so is a " fire- 

 proof " building only thoroughly fire-proof if everything about it is 

 properly done. You can not have half-fire-proof or semi-fire-proof. 

 Those are misnomers. 



Therefore, it is imperative that our authorities should demand good, 

 incombustible construction. Left to their own volition it would be 

 years before the people would build that way. It has to be made com- 

 pulsory. The community must legislate for its safety and against the 

 selfish or ignorant interests of the individual. But it may help the in- 

 dividual nevertheless by making it directly advantageous, to him to 

 build properly. Supposing even that the regulations do not exact fire- 

 proof construction everywhere, taxes should be so arranged that a maxi- 

 mum rate should be assessed against inferior, highly combustible 

 buildings. It is for their protection that the city has to maintain ex- 

 pensive fire departments and fire-fighting media ; were it not for those 

 buildings such expense would be unnecessary. It is nothing but right, 

 consequently, that the owners of those buildings should pay their full 

 pro rata of that charge. The rate upon first-class fire-proof construc- 

 tion should be the very minimum because those buildings require the 

 least of that protection and their owners should not l)e made to pay as 



