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Show jFiremen Sponsor 1 Fire Prevention Week's Activities i ; Members of the Milford Volun-i Volun-i teer Fire department have been active this week distributing fire i prevention literature in connection with Fire Prevention week, October Oc-tober 9-15. Cooperation of the schools and other agencies has been utilized in the filling out of questionnaires bearing on fire hazards haz-ards of all kinds. Millions of dollars' worth of valuable property is destroyed and thousands of human lives are sacrificed in the United States every year because of fires that common sense and ordinary precautions pre-cautions might have prevented, or could have checked except for- ignorance ig-norance and excitement. It is a menace that lurks in every heme, schoolhouse, factory, storeroom, garage and public building in all the towns and cities of the nation. Of all the devastating and destructive de-structive elements with which mankind man-kind is forced by carelessness or misfortune to contend, fire is most feared and its study has been long-neglected. r loods leave in their wake wreckage that may be reassembled and used; hurricanes flatten vegetation vege-tation to roots from wdiich growths will spring again; cyclones carry off treasures that may be recovered; recover-ed; but the flame leaves charred desolation in its path, completely i destroys forest areas, removes , barriers that protect settlements j from inundations, consumes gems i of art and genius, robs its victims of heirlooms and keepsakes, takes that which can never be replaced and wreaks its ruin with a savagery sava-gery that blinds, baffles and bewilders be-wilders those in its path. I Fires snuffed- out 10,000 lives last year in this country and consumed con-sumed over a quarter of a billion dollars in property. Some conflagrations con-flagrations are caused by insecure electric wiring, some by defective flues, some by careless smokers, some-by children who are allowed to play with matches and others I by spontaneous combustion which! ought to be avoided in many in- j stances. ' To minimize this danger, to eliminate eli-minate carelessness and to make the public fire-minded is the pur-1 pose of the work being undertaken by the local firemen and their f-I f-I forts should be given every en-j en-j couragement by individuals and, officials. ! |