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Show Cut Our Fire Bill "Let's give the fireman a vacation." vaca-tion." That was a suggestion offered by a magazine published by the National Safety Council, in writing on Fire Prevention Week just passed. Let's hope it was well heeded. Now every citizen should do his best to see that the fire department de-partment continues on "vacation' during the balance of the year as well. Last year we you and I and Bill Jones, the neighbor paid a fire bill of almost half a billion dollars. We've paid about the same bill for more years than one cares to count. For the most part, we refer to the fire loss as the "nation's loss" as if it were a more or less remote matter, affecting af-fecting other pocketbooks than ours. Most of us, of course, suffered no fire during the year. But we contributed our share of the bill just the same. We paid it in higher high-er insurance premiums than would otherwise have been necessary, neces-sary, in loss of business, in destroyed des-troyed jobs, in ruined industries, in increased taxes, in lapses in community development. Every fire whether it touches a two-hundred dollar garage or a two-billion dollar dol-lar industry, damages us all. None can escape it. Fire Prevention Week was a good time to start a real campaign against fire that will achieve results. re-sults. Let's do our best to cut our share of the fire bill to conform to the rest of the cuts in the family budget. |