FIRE HAZARD AND ARCHITECTURE.

FIRE HAZARD AND ARCHITECTURE.

ONE of the most important factors entering into the fire hazard of the country is that of the construction of buildings, which, in these days, involves almost the maximum, in place of the minimum of danger, or liability to destruction by fire. An ornate exterior—with perhaps a conveniently arranged interior—seems to be the chief object of concern with both the owners and architects of buildings, and show is apparently of more importance than solidity. This is undoubtedly true of all the large cities, and also to a great extent of the small ones, but the fact is not to be excused because it is common. Scarcely a day passes without witnessing, anywhere throughout the country where there is any building going on, the erection of the merest shams under the guise of substantial structures, and immense lumber piles, veneered with either brick or stone, are suffered to be put up from one end of the land to the other. Wood, wood, wood! nothing but wood, and of the most combustible kind at that, fills most all of our pretentious buildings and renders them the worst sort of fire hazards.

Added to this feature is the great height and area of a very large proportion, which makes fires in them difficult to suppress, resulting in most cases in a serious destruction of property. Lath and plaster partitions, wood joists and floors, stairs and roofs, afford the best possible food for fire, and invite conflagrations of no small proportions, and they come as invited. Could anything be more culpable than putting a whole village within four ordinary brick walls and under the common fire-box of a roof called a mansard ? And then, what nonsense to call such buildings safe and good fire hazards, when we know they are not! The modern four to six-story fire-box roofed, so-called brick building, is not to be compared, as a fire hazard, with the old fashioned two-story modest brick of thirty years ago. As to the former, it requires expert firemen to mount to the roof, and a regiment of them, supported by two to six heavy steam engines to do anything with a building on fire; while, as to the latter, a few neighbors with buckets and two or three ladders could command the situation and put out the fire.