286 Securities against Fire, &c. 
Arr. IV.—Surpitement to a letter to the Hon. W. J. Duane, 
(late Secretary of the Treasury of the United States,) as publish- 
ed in this Journal, Vol. xxv, No. 2, p. 290; respecting the sa- 
ving of houses and their inhabitants from fire, and the obtaining 
supplies of water and warm air. 
1. Tue interview which I had with Dr. Franklin, as noticed in 
the preceding letter, occurred at Paris; and probably, at a mo- 
ment when news had just arrived there of an extensive conflagra- 
tion in England; and I remember moreover, that it was late in 
the evening. Hence, the conversation is to be considered as cas- 
ual, and also as having been brief.—It was confined to the great 
fact, that fires were often extensive in England, but were rarely so 
in France; and it assigned two causes for this difference; Ist, 
that the staircases and passages in the houses of the French, were 
usually constructed with incombustible materials ; and 2d, that the in- 
terior of their rooms had little exposed wood-work in them, unless 
such as had mortar or some other incombustible material placed close 
behind it. Thus the Doctor’s conversation regarded merely the 
spreading of fire from room to room, and from house to house. 
As the object of my letter is more extensive, I add here, from my- 
self, that the French mode of constructing and of finishing houses, is 
attended with two other.important advantages, besides that of check- 
ing the extension of fires. First—Life is evidently favored, if a se- 
cure passage in case of fire, is made from every apartment in a house, 
down to the ground floor; since’ such inmates in the house as are 
awake, will then take care of themselves; and their neighbors from 
without may fearlessly enter the house to look after those who are 
sleeping, and also after others who are unable to assist themselves, 
(as the sick or infirm, and little children.) Secondly —valuable move- 
ables, in such circumstances, may easily be carried off and placed 
out of the reach of danger.—The plan of the French, therefore, es- 
pecially in a country like the U. States, where so many houses are 
built throughout with wood, is not to be overlooked in great towns, 
notwithstanding the expertness of their firemen, and their ample pro- 
vision of fire-engines, ladders, 8c. and still less is it to be disregard- 
ed, where these advantages are wanting. 
I may be allowed to add here, that I have conjectured, that at the 
time of Dr. Franklin’s communication as above mentioned, this phi- 
