From the Publishers Desk
Fight Against Fire Starting to Improve
Our editor addresses himself this month to the problem of arson which he will be reporting on in March after having attended the Fifth Annual Conference of the United States Fire Administration which will be themed to America’s Malignant Crime.
After reading his editorial we did a little digging in our files and came up with some disturbing figures. According to the USFA, incendiary and suspicious fires are the number one problem in nonresidential buildings. They account for 20 to 25 percent of nonresidential building fires, deaths, injuries and dollar loss.
Digging further in our files, we found that residential fires in two states combined represented only 22 percent of all fires attended, but they accounted for 68 percent of fire deaths, 57 percent of injuries and 43 percent of dollar loss. The “known cause” categories are still headed by “cooking” followed by “smoking” and “heating.” This trio has headed the list since way back when statistics were first gathered and is probably the same in every state in the union. Fires of “unknown” cause understandably accounted for 10 percent of all fires. Many of the unknowns probably represent the efforts of successful arsonists.
Again, according to USFA statistics, when the U.S. fire statistics are compared with those from other industrialized countries, “our fire incidents, casualties and dollar loss per capita are found to be among the highest in the world.” But on an upbeat note, “U.S. casualties and losses per fire are slightly below average compared to the other countries.”
It would seem then that the U.S. is still in a bad way when it comes to the unfriendly fire. But things are improving as witness the increased activities of the USFA. Our editor tells us that programs, in the works for a long while, are starting to move at the new fire academy, which he visited in December. Also, top-staffers have finally been appointed.
