FIRE-RESISTING MATERIALS. 155 
scanty private supply of water, made a desperate and gallant fight 
from the roof of the building and within, and saved it. little injured. 
As most metallic shutters rapidly deteriorate with time, rust, and 
weather, and often become jammed so that they will not close, many 
architects prefer wire glass in hollow metallic sash and window 
sprinklers. This combination has proved effective. 
San Francisco's experience indicates that wells and elevator shafts, 
running up through many stories, should be guarded by brick or 
reenforced-concrete walls, fitted with double metal rolling doors, 
bolted to the walls to allow for expansion, or with automatic sliding 
doors and wire-glass partitions. There was little or no provision 
for cutting off the draft of air that will ascend through such a shaft 
during a fire, and great destruction resulted in consequence. The 
Call Building took fire from the power house behind it, on the other 
side of Stevenson street, the heat being drawn through the tunnel to 
the elevator shaft, up which it rushed with the fierce draft given by 
the 18 stories, breaking glass and burning doors, furniture, trim- 
mings, and office contents. The Telephone Building, on Bush street 
(PL XLI, ^1), met a similar fate, being consumed from within. This 
new structure was claimed to have the best fire protection in the city. 
The importance and value of real protection will be appreciated 
when it is stated that a third-class building with a complete fire- 
prevention plant is insured for less than a first-class one that does 
not have it. This fact should be understood by all owners. More- 
over, all parts of an establishment should be equally protected, for 
the fire may begin anywhere. The new Telephone Building was 
burned owing to the nonobservance of this rule, catching fire through 
the unprotected wooden back door of the basement. The structure 
was fitted with " tin-clad shutters " and wire glass on the side and 
rear openings and with steel rolling shutters in front. The fire broke 
through the rear wooden door into two well shafts and a corridor 
and, rushing upward, consumed every floor. The building was 
destroyed by a fire that entered through a single unprotected open- 
ing. The tin-clad shutters were destroyed and much of the wire 
glass was melted or broken by the hot fire. The rolling shutters in 
front still hung, but were bent so that the windows were exposed. 
Concrete floors with metallic-mesh reenforcement are strongly 
recommended for strength and fireproof character. Xoncombustible 
wooden floors, doors, and trim were installed in a few buildings, and 
under ordinary conditions would probably have limited the destruc- 
tion to "one-room fires." but the heat was so high, and in general 
the bulk of papers, books, and furniture so great, that all were 
consumed. A noninflammable substitute for woodwork and trim 
generally is greatly to be desired. 
