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Show EQUITABLE FIRE AND FIRE IN OGDEN. B The burning of the nine-story Equitable building in New York City HI forces the conclusion that where there is a fire trap, either in New York HI City, Ogden or elsewhere, once the flames gain headway, the fire-fighting 1 forces arc helpless. HI The fire in the Equitable building started in a basement cafe. The H flames followed an elevator to the top floor and spread over that part of the H big structure. When the firemen arrived, there was much smoke, but no H, flames. Gradually the fire spread and then the whole structure appeared B to be transformed into a white-hot furnace. H That is the story of the Eccles building fire and it goes far to prove that H a building constructed so as to allow of the quick spread of a fire, cannot H be saved even by a fire department as well organized and equipped as that HI of New York, which is the best in the world. H Falling copings, as in all large fires in. big structures, handicapped the H firemen who battled in New York this morning and the inability of the fire j fighters to approach the section where men were imprisoned, owing to the H danger from falling walls, nearly cost three lives. In all large fire depart- H ments there should be a. steel canopy on wheels which could be run up to H any part of a building on fire, without danger to those under the protecting H armor. B The heaviest loss of life to firemen is caused by falling debris and the H' greatest handicap is often the inability of the men to get near to the point H where a few well-directed streams would be most effective. H Evidently New York City, with its great army of employes, lacks in fire m inspection or the power to enforce fire protection in the big buildings. A M smaller place might be expected to fall short in compelling the erection of B fire-proof structures, as the small cities have not the expert opinion to guide B them or the available force with which to accomplish their purpose, but New H York should have both. The fire in the shirtwaist factory, in which H many employes lost their lives, gave the outside world the first convincing B evidence of the deficiency of New York's fire inspection, and now the Equi- B Jable adds to that proof of the insecurity of even those buildings which B have been generally thought of as fire resisting and beyond possible total B destruction. B The danger from fire to which large buildings are subject should serve B (to bring about better construction along the lines laid down by our foremost B architects who have studied fire prevention and have prescribed rules for B guarding against fire destruction. In this connection, it is a source of con- B gratulation that the structure which is to displace the Eccles ruins in Ogden B is to be a seven-story, fire-proof steel building, constructed according to B the most advanced ideas on fire protection and modeled after one of the B most modern office buildings of the country. H From end to end in this country, there is not enough attention given to B fire prevention in the construction of buildings and this fact is borne out B by the statistics of fire losses. While we have the best fire departments, fl in skilled men and fine apparatus, expending $1.53 per capita in maintain- B ing our fire departments, as compared with 20 cents per capita in Europe, B yet our fire losses are nearly eight times as great per capita as in Germany, H France or Italy. Last year the fire losses in the United States totaled $215,- H 000,000. |