FIRE PATROL, PHILADELPHIA.

FIRE PATROL, PHILADELPHIA.

费城的防火安全检查系统是t之一he best managed and the most successfully operated organization of its kind in the country. It has been under the super intendency of Captain G. A. Stillman for many years, and as time rolls on that efficient officer keeps on improving his service until it now stands at the head of the list of the fire insurance patrols of the United States. Last year the losses by fire in Philadelphia were a little under those of the two years preceding, which must in no small degree be attributed to the salvage work of the fire patrol. During 1901 the men spread 424 covers, 327 of which were in the congested business districts. In the congested district itself there were 172 fires with a loss of $800,000, as against 192 in the same locality with a loss of about $2,000,000 in 1900. The details of losses during the year may be classified as follows: Chargeable to lightning, heating, and cooking, 1,942; carelessness, 123; hazards of the business, 192; miscellaneous causes, 200; unknown causes, 560—total, 3,017. To the insurance loss on the above—52,058,190, should be added loss not insured (estimated), $598,665—total $2,656,855. During 1901 twenty-four fires made an insurance loss of $1,529,241; 2,993, $528,949; largest fire during the year, $301,655; next largest, $559,612. Of these fires 2,387 were in brick buildings; 115, in stone; 202, in frame; five, in iron; fires outside of buildings, 308. Two thousand four hundred fires were confined to floor of origin; 253 extended to other floors of the same building; fifty-six, to adjoining property; the remaining 308 fires were outside of buildings. In the fifty-six cases where the fire extended to adjoining buildings the loss was $224,834. Electricity was chargeable with eighty-nine fires—a cause which is not so deadly in Philadelphia as it apparently is elsewhere, probably because Captain Stillman takes extra precautions in his examination after a fire from “unknown” causes, to investigate till he finds out whether electricity did or did not start the fire, or whether the blaze set down to that cause was really or not originated by it. and was not, as in one case he investigated, due to a “redhot stove which had been ‘accidentally’ left closed when the assured had departed from home!" More than fifteen per cent. 462—of the whole number of fires for the year were caused by petroleum, as a result of which about fifty persons lost their lives; almost 150 were more or less injured; and something less than $30,000 worth of property (the least loss to be regretted) was sacrificed. “Unknown causes" again heads the list both as to number—560—and as to property loss —$1,657,143. of which the underwriters believe that at least one-third of that amount can be set down to incendiarism. To guard against this evil in the future the mayor of Philadelphia has appointed four fire marshals, clothed with legal power, whose duty it is to ascertain the cause of all fires; to prosecute promptly in every case of criminality. Defective flues caused 244 fires during 1901. Such flues point to defective construction, and that to defective building laws. In Philadelphia these defective building laws are so much in evidence that it is only necessary to walk through one of the busier sections to see that the city has virtually no building laws at all. Structures rise one hundred and more feet into the air; cover practically unlimited ground area; and are a menace to the neighborhoods; and, perhaps, to the whole district surrounding them. One in particular is referred to, but not named by Captain Stillman, which, if it got fairly on fire, would destroy all its surroundings and involve the destruction of many millions of property.

费城的防火安全检查系统是t之一he best managed and the most successfully operated organization of its kind in the country. It has been under the super intendency of Captain G. A. Stillman for many years, and as time rolls on that efficient officer keeps on improving his service until it now stands at the head of the list of the fire insurance patrols of the United States. Last year the losses by fire in Philadelphia were a little under those of the two years preceding, which must in no small degree be attributed to the salvage work of the fire patrol. During 1901 the men spread 424 covers, 327 of which were in the congested business districts. In the congested district itself there were 172 fires with a loss of $800,000, as against 192 in the same locality with a loss of about $2,000,000 in 1900. The details of losses during the year may be classified as follows: Chargeable to lightning, heating, and cooking, 1,942; carelessness, 123; hazards of the business, 192; miscellaneous causes, 200; unknown causes, 560—total, 3,017. To the insurance loss on the above—52,058,190, should be added loss not insured (estimated), $598,665—total $2,656,855. During 1901 twenty-four fires made an insurance loss of $1,529,241; 2,993, $528,949; largest fire during the year, $301,655; next largest, $559,612. Of these fires 2,387 were in brick buildings; 115, in stone; 202, in frame; five, in iron; fires outside of buildings, 308. Two thousand four hundred fires were confined to floor of origin; 253 extended to other floors of the same building; fifty-six, to adjoining property; the remaining 308 fires were outside of buildings. In the fifty-six cases where the fire extended to adjoining buildings the loss was $224,834. Electricity was chargeable with eighty-nine fires—a cause which is not so deadly in Philadelphia as it apparently is elsewhere, probably because Captain Stillman takes extra precautions in his examination after a fire from “unknown” causes, to investigate till he finds out whether electricity did or did not start the fire, or whether the blaze set down to that cause was really or not originated by it. and was not, as in one case he investigated, due to a “redhot stove which had been ‘accidentally’ left closed when the assured had departed from home!" More than fifteen per cent. 462—of the whole number of fires for the year were caused by petroleum, as a result of which about fifty persons lost their lives; almost 150 were more or less injured; and something less than $30,000 worth of property (the least loss to be regretted) was sacrificed. “Unknown causes" again heads the list both as to number—560—and as to property loss —$1,657,143. of which the underwriters believe that at least one-third of that amount can be set down to incendiarism. To guard against this evil in the future the mayor of Philadelphia has appointed four fire marshals, clothed with legal power, whose duty it is to ascertain the cause of all fires; to prosecute promptly in every case of criminality. Defective flues caused 244 fires during 1901. Such flues point to defective construction, and that to defective building laws. In Philadelphia these defective building laws are so much in evidence that it is only necessary to walk through one of the busier sections to see that the city has virtually no building laws at all. Structures rise one hundred and more feet into the air; cover practically unlimited ground area; and are a menace to the neighborhoods; and, perhaps, to the whole district surrounding them. One in particular is referred to, but not named by Captain Stillman, which, if it got fairly on fire, would destroy all its surroundings and involve the destruction of many millions of property.