Fire Engineering’s 140th Anniversary

Fire Prevention, 1912: Protecting Employees and Property

Although many may think that Fire Prevention Week is relatively new, it has been with us for more than 100 years. In this month’s historical retrospective, we see a 1912 Fire Prevention Day demonstration in New York City that brings together public education, fire protection engineering, and firefighting techniques at a structure that still exists in Manhattan near West 24th Street and Seventh Avenue. Most notably, the mayor and Fire Department of New York chiefs attended the commemoration, held on the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, October 9. The 1912 event occurred at a clothing factory more than a year after a fatal fire at another clothing factory (Triangle Shirtwaist) killed 145 people on March 25, 1911. Both of these buildings still exist. Citing his concern for the safety of employees and the factory, the company’s president outlined its fire prevention and protection efforts. It wasn’t until 1920 that President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed October 9 as the first Fire Prevention Day; in 1922 President Warren G. Harding officially declared the first Fire Prevention Week. Over the succeeding decades, America’s fire service has embraced this focus on fire prevention and protection, training millions in proper fire safety procedures and behavior. Next October, invite your mayor to speak at your commemoration. Perhaps it will highlight the “utility and practicability” of fire prevention efforts, as Mayor Gaynor observed.

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