| Show ION FIRE INSURANCE With Better Buildings 200000 a Year Can be Saved RATES ARE BEING REDUCED he Importance of Keeping a City in an I Insurable ConditionsEffects of II Fire Trans An expense that is nearly as universal as taxes is insurance A man who does not insure his building is looked upon as a reckless reck-less fellow and should his bo property reduced re-duced to ashes he finds few sympathizers Estimating the buildings of this city are worth 30000000 and insured for two thirds that amount or 20000000 it is easy to see that it costs something to keep up the insurance The rate of insurance depends de-pends on a great many things If the buildings build-ings are fire proof or nearly so and are not i i i occupied by materials that are liable to burn the rate is made very low The business of rating buildings is now I confined to the Pacific Insurance union and whatever ratings the union places on a building govern tho rated which all legitimate I legiti-mate insurance companies will insure it i W S Duval general manager of the Pacific Insurance union was lately in this I city The union controls the ratings for the Pacific slope and as far east as Montana Mon-tana Idaho and Utah It has a branch I office in this city which takes in Utah Idaho and Montana Prom Mr Duval it was learned that the union makes the rates and does the inspect I hll hh n n hh L b UL U uu U UUIIi lubunug III LIIe territory ter-ritory mentioned He noted that there was a great improvement in theclass of build ings being erected in i this city and that the new business blocks were solidly built an d compared very favorably with those in the larger cities Our business saH Mr Duval includes a little of everything including in-cluding general police work We have to keep stirring up the authorities in regard to the enforcement of the firo ordinances the efficiency of the fire department and the water sup ply The price for a hazard of course depends de-pends upon tho risk and this has been fig ured down to an exact science Insurance companies can make more money out of a good risk at a low rate than out of a poor risk at a high rate Theoretically you can insure everything to a powder magazine but by doing so tho owners of the fireproof building would havo to help pay the loss To encourage good construction the rating on a building well built and wall located located like the Cunningtnn block on the corner is made as low as l while a J business busi-ness block that is a firetrap would have to pay 3 or o On good risks there is no difficulty in finding companies that will carry large lines of insurance while on poorly constructed buildings it is difficult to get a company to take over i509o 1000 and not want it at that The lowest rate in I San Francisco is CO cents which is on tho Chronicle building which is absolutely fireproof I fire-proof and without any burning inutevialsin it Everything depends on how the build lug is made how it is occupied and how it is located in regard tp other buildings The more efficient the lire department the bet ter the water supply and tho stricter the ordinance against piling up rubbish in the cellars and back of buildings the lower will be the rate If the frame buildings am as thick as raisins in a pudding that fact must be charged against tho city If a min persists per-sists in keeping rubbish in his cellar that must be charged against him until it is removed re-moved If a man has a well hole which will act as a chimney in drawing the flmna fnm n 41n u LL < > U UIOL U IIUU LV UVU Loa 1acli must stand against him until be closes it up If he has a window opening in a wall next a frame building that must be charged The same way if the city is kept clean of rubbish the rating is made leas We therefore take an interest in hay log this done All the talking and preach ing does little good and it requires prac tical experience to awaken the people to the importance of all these precautions against fires What we aro trying to do is to have the people make these improve I l ments nefore they will suffer by a general conflagration I hAs every good building makes the city safer from fire and every poorly constructed con-structed building increases the danger tho importance of enforcing the fire ordinance in the construction of buildings is quite apparent Taking the total insurance at 20000000 and it is easy to figure what can be saved 520000OCO Insurance at 1 per cent 3 200000 JO000oX insurance at 2 per centu 0000 OOOOOOO insurance at 3 per cent 000000 8200000X1 Insurance at 4 per centu 8X000 20000000 < Insurance at 5 per cCl1tIUOJOOO By the reduction of the rate of insurance 1 per cent 200000 a year is saved to the property owners 01 me city Much of the business property is now paying 2M and 3 per cent when if they had good buildings this rate could be lowered to 1 per cent |
