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Show Lack Of Building Cades Called Firo Hazsrd American communities must bear much of the blame ror our soaring toll of deaths and property pro-perty destruction by fire. According to A. Bruce Bielas-ki, Bielas-ki, executive director of the President's Conference on Fire. Prevention, less than 2,000 of the more than 16,OQ0 municipalities municipal-ities in te "United States have building codes. Most pf the existing exist-ing laws are more than 15 years old. On top pf that a "great many fre departments " firo badly equipped h(i undermanned, and arc pot organized "tp give firer nien adequate training:" Here are some of the reasons Why the toll of fire has reached record prePOrtiQhSj Is 8tj11 increasing, Last March, for ex ample, losiea reached a new monthly high of almost $72,500,-000--36 per cent above the same month in 1946. And fire's death toll is running in excess of 10,-000 10,-000 lives annually. . During the war, much sul standard construction was necessary, neces-sary, and fire fighting equipment was extremely scarce and often completely unobtainable. That alibi is no. longer valid. Communities Com-munities can and must adopt building codes which will assure maximum protection against firer even as they can and mu9t modernize their fire departments and train members properly. The fact that the majority of our municipalities have no building codes at all is disgraceful and inexcusable, Mr. Bielaski points out. |