Railway Fire Protection. 



By Clyde Leavitt, Chief Fire Inspector, Board of Railway Commissioners 

 for Canada, and Forester, Commission of Conservation. 



It is well recognized iu theory that 

 railways should themselves he requir- 

 ed to take such measures as may he 

 necessary to safeguard i)uhlic and 

 private property from destruction by 

 fires due to railway operation. This 

 theory has been translated into prac- 

 tice to a far greater degree in Canada 

 than elsewhere on this continent. 



It is also becoming recognized by 

 the more progressive railway officials 

 that the extension of the Govern- 

 mental powers of regulation to cover 

 matters of fire protection is not as a 

 matter of fact a hardship upon the 

 companies, so long as only reasonable 

 requirements are made, but that, on 

 the contrary, such regulation merely 

 makes a necessity of what would in 

 any event be dictated by good busi- 

 ness policy, having due regard to the 

 best permanent welfare of the railway 

 companies themselves. A disting- 

 uishing characteristic of the modern 

 progressive railway official is his re- 

 gard for the future interest of his 

 company, in contradistinction to the 

 old-time railroad man, whose sole 

 thought was in so many cases for the 

 present, regardless of the future. 



The prevention of railway fires 

 means greatly reduced litigation and 

 damage claims and, inversely, tends 

 toward a much more friendly feeling 

 on the part of the general public to- 

 ward the companies. It means also 

 decreased loss of the company's pro- 

 perty and increased attractiveness of 

 the line from the tourist point of view, 

 thus conducing toward greater reven- 

 ues. Forest growth in proximity to 

 the track also means in the long run 

 greater supplies at lower prices, of 

 the tremendous (|uantities of wood 

 material necessary for ties and other 

 uses in connection with railway oper- 

 ation. It means also that instead of 

 barren wastes producing no revenue, 

 large non-agricultural sections of the 



country will produce successive wood- 

 crops forever, thus maintaining num- 

 erous settlements along the line and 

 constituting a perpetual source of 

 business and therefore of freight and 

 passenger revenue to the railway. 



At the end of June, 1912, the total 

 length of railways operating in Can- 

 ada was over 27,000 miles, leaving the 

 Dominion in the unique position of 

 having the largest railway mileage 

 per capita of population of any coun- 

 try in the world, despite the rapid 

 peopling of the western provinces, 

 during the past ten years. At the 

 same time there were approximately 

 7,000 additional miles of line actually 

 under construction. A very large 

 proportion of this 34,000 miles of line 

 is subject to the Board of Railway 

 Commissioners. 



The powers granted to and exer- 

 cised by the Railway Commission as 

 to fire protective measures have been 

 gradually modified and extended, cul- 

 minating May 22, 1912, in the issu- 

 ance of Order 16570, covering all 

 })liases of railway fire protective work. 

 The essential requirements of this Oi*- 

 (ler are as follows: — 



(First.) The use of fire-protective 

 appliances on coal-burning locomo- 

 tives, calculated to prevent so far as 

 possible the escape of live sparks oi* 

 cinders from stack and fire-box. 

 These appliances to be inspected at 

 least once each week by railway em- 

 ])loyees. Frequent check inspections 

 are also made by the inspectors of the 

 Operating Department of the Rail- 

 way Commission. The best modern 

 appliances are prescribed, and ex- 

 perience shows^that the frequent in- 

 spections made 'by the railways them- 

 si^lves result in the early discovery 

 and rectification of most of the de- 

 fects in netting mesh or other appli- 

 ances. In this way the occurrence of 

 fires is very largely prevented, though 



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