Salt Lake Telegram | 1939-02-16 | Page 6 | Thrill-Seekers at Fires

Thrill-Seekers at Firei THE disastrous fir which destroyed the mlnei building on the university campus Tuesday night served once more to bring out the lament-. able fact that selfish, heedless and, we are compelled com-pelled to believe, intellectually inadequate thrill-seekers thrill-seekers can be a pretty expensive and dangerous nuisance. To them must be charged a large share of the losses, probably exceeding $40,000. Unfortunately, the community was mad ware of the blare almost at the moment of ill onset. Automobiles were driven to the site post haste -and blocked the fire department equipment equip-ment racing to the scene. All driven seemed in-..tent, in-..tent, on setting, ai lore to the blaze it possible Answering a general alarm, all available firemen and trucks fought their wsy through the crowds of sightseers. Assistant Tire Chief William J. Hancock haa said the traffic congestion lost "ten minutes of valuable time" to his men. That ten minutrt turned what might have been minor blaze Into disaster. Fire Captain John A. Raf-ferty. Raf-ferty. Lieutenant A. R. Ward and Fireman R. A. Watts were injured, but might have been spared hurts if the fire's heedwsy could have been checked. The large police contingent sought to untangle un-tangle the mass of csrs. It became next to Impossible. Im-possible. With the full authority of the traffic cod backing them, they tried to give many drivers tags, but hundreds of csrs escaped penalty. pen-alty. When there is another conflagration, the same situation will arise. A means of having police promptly on the scene must bo devised. Cars ought to be kept moving and ordered out of the way of the fire department. Those which fail to do so should be corralled and allowed to leave only with a ticket. The police ar dealing in auh cases with lawbreakers endangering life and property. They need rough handling.