Fire Risk in Massachusetts 



269 



greater. Possibly if I had gone a step further and had joined 

 to the industrial towns the adjoining communities, I might obtain 

 more pronounced results, because an industrial community on 

 Sundays and holidays spreads beyond its own political boundaries. 

 Coming to the matter of railroad fires, and taking a strip one 

 eighth mile wide on either side of the track as the danger zone for 

 twenty-five hundred miles of railroad, we find that there are 400,- 

 000 acres in this zone. I understand that many railroad fires 

 spread more than one eighth mile from the track, but when we see 

 that the average fire only covers six acres it is evident that the ma- 

 jority of the fires extend but a short distance. On 400,000 acres 

 of railroad zone, or 8 per cent of the State, we have 830, or 26 

 per cent of all the fires. The relative fire risks may be summarized 

 as follows : Railroad zone as 3 is to 1 ; industrial zone as 3 to 2 ; 

 all other as 2 to 3. 



Classified Causes of Fires — 1914 



Number of Fires Per Cent 



Unknown 1,174 37 



Railroad 830 26 



Burning brush 196 6. 2 



Hunters. 520 16. 4 



Steam mills 3 1 



Children 140 4. 4 



Miscellaneous 318 9. 9 



3.181 



Distribution of Fires — 1914 



Average 

 Number Total Per Cent Number Per Cent Acres Per Cent Fire 

 Towns Acreage Total Fires Total Burned Total Acres 



Manufacturing Towns 



73 1,262,460 25 786^ 33^ 11,860 33^ 15 



(20 %) 



All Other Towns 



280 4,058,540 75 1564^ 66^ 22,340 66^ 14 



(80 %) 



Railroad Belt 



400,000 8 830 26^ 4,800 12^ 6 



1 Non-railroad fires only. 



2 Per cent of all fires. 



