That Ferocious Fire Fiend.
Insurance companies get spasms of neutral activity whenever an epidemic of fires break out. In these latter days fires do not come us epidemics. We read of them in former times us in Evelyn’s diary of the great London fire, and of histories of the fire in New York during the British occupation, but civilization produces conflagrations of vastly greater extent. Tho London fire did not equal in destruction of values or in area the Chicago affair, and the New York’ fire pales before that of St. John’s, which it much resembled. In these days, it seems as if American cities reproduced the characteristics of Constantinople or Yeddo, places famous for their repeated conflagrations. But in Yeddo, when a fire breaks out, the people simply move out of tho district and pull down the buildings to confine tho destruction to a limited space. They live in preparation for such events, and, true to their Asiatic contrariness, their plan is the direct reverse ®f our Occidental ways, and it. is not clear that tboir fashion is not the best. They do not roly on stoum fire engines, hut on the celerity of moving. They do not build expensive and delusive fire-proof buildings, with iron girders that expand in the heat and push down walls, or granite facings that explode like shells. But they pat up light structures of bamboo and paper, so that it makes little difference whether they burn or not. This plan is worthy of attention by the insurance companies, for if they can not secure themselves against vast fires, they can reduce the amount of risk, and so put off the evil day when the commissioner will say “ 1 have no pleasure in you.” But it is noticeable that with all the improvements in Babcock’s extinguishers, and steam engines that put on three or four streams of water in seven minutes from the alarm, fires grow worse and worse. Sinco science has been arming us with new devices for fighting the fire fiend, the fiend bus become more ferocious and capable of damage. It is easy to see some of tho reasons for this. The town is, if not tho chief scene of fire dovestation, at all events (he best bete noire of the insurance companies. Now, town life has greatly increased in tho last generation.
The New York State census of 1875 showed that all the increase of five years had been in towns, the rural jiopulation remaining stationary, if not positively receding. The town growth is the result of machinery, of factories, I ! railways, and steamers. Owing to concentration land grows valuable, and a compensation is sought in joining buildings by their partition walls, and by carrying them high up in tho air,
Modern American stores are so many connected flues when a tiro breaks out. Moreover many now and inllamrnable articles of commerce have came into use, such as dynamite, kerosene, and gas. AVe have no means of estimating how far fires are extended by the escape of illuminating gas into the air from burning buildings, nor do we know what the effects are of turning incalcublo quantities of smoke and gas into tho atmosphere of our towns from factories and our new inventions for burning fuel. Certainly it seems as if the fire spread itself by leaps, as if atmospheric conditions helped it at times. How are these things to be met? That is a question which should claim the immediate attention of persons whose scientific acquisitions fit them for uch work.—Frwvknw rrests.
