July, 1905 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



23 



" Hilhouse "— The Dirung-Room 



Fire Protection 



The Question of Fireproof 



T IS a good sign of the times that the ques- 

 tion of fire protection is receiving very wide 

 attention. And it is no wonder this is so. 

 In the last few years the United States has 

 been visited by a series of disastrous fires, 

 which have been so extensive as to make the 

 terms " Baltimore fire," " Patterson fire," " Rochester fire " 

 and others both descriptive and definite. 



These great conflagrations, however, by no means sum up 

 the total fire loss in this country, which, for many years, has 

 averaged millions of dollars in the value of property de- 

 stroyed, and many more millions in the injury they bring to 

 business and the personal losses they entail which can scarcely 

 ever be estimated in total amounts. But it has been the great 

 fires, like that of Baltimore, which have concentrated public 

 attention on this very important subject. The sweeping 

 away of an entire business section of a great city was a 

 national calamity, and the wider public, which had not 

 hitherto concerned itself with fire losses and their morals, 

 was rudely awakened to the realities of a very great danger. 

 In the wide discussion of these matters which is now tak- 

 ing place the question of fireproofing takes a front rank. Is 

 the modern building fireproof or only partly so? And 

 if not completely fireproof, why is a certain class of buildings 

 so designated? The confusion in the public mind — the pub- 

 lic which knows little of the science of construction and of 



the progress and experiments made within the last twenty 

 years — is due entirely to a misunderstanding of the word fire- 

 proof. As used in insurance, architectural and building 

 circles to-day the word does not mean that a " fireproof " 

 building will not burn, or that it is perfectly capable of 

 resisting fires. It is a word whose meaning is relative only, 

 and rightly so, since inflammable material must, to a greater 

 or less extent, enter into the construction of every building, 

 large or small, public or private. 



And the great fires have, most unmistakably, shown the 

 value of such construction. The buildings that have been 

 destroyed have been buildings of the old type, which made no 

 pretense to fireproofing. The buildings that survived have 

 been those built in accordance with scientific ideas of fire 

 protection in the structure itself. Let it be granted, if you 

 will, that this protection is but relative, it has a positive value 

 which much recent experience has shown to be of the highest 

 practical utility. 



It can not be long, notwithstanding the greater expense of 

 the fireproof building construction, when this system is also 

 applied to the private dwelling. The demands for this are 

 already loud, and a number of costly houses have been built 

 in the last few years that are actually fireproof in the insur- 

 ance meaning of the term. Such an extension of fireproof 

 construction will mean much for the safety of lives and 

 property in our large cities. 



