Fighting the Fire
FIREBRANDS
BY
FRANK E. MARTIN
AND
GEORGE M. DAVIS, M.D.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
School Edition
BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1912
Copyright, 1911,
By Little, Brown, and Company.
All rights reserved
Printers
S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston, U. S. A.
PREFACE
Every year fire destroys an enormousamount of property in theUnited States. Of this great lossby which our country is made just somuch poorer, for property destroyed byfire is gone forever and cannot be replaced,a large proportion is due to carelessness,thoughtlessness, and ignorance. Nor is ita property loss only. Every fire endangershuman life, and the number of liveslost in this way in one year is trulyappalling.
It has been estimated that if all thebuildings burned in one year were placedclose together on both sides of a street,they would make an avenue of desolationreaching from Chicago to New York City.At each thousand feet there would be abuilding from which a severely injured[Pg vi]person had been rescued, and every three-quartersof a mile would stand the blackenedruins of a house in which some onehad been burned to death.
Children are allowed to burn dry leavesin the fall, and their clothing catches firefrom the flames; women pour keroseneon the fire in their kitchen stoves, orcleanse clothing with gasoline near anopen blaze; thoughtless men toss lightedcigars and cigarettes into a heap of rubbish,or drop them from an upper windowinto an awning; the head of a parlor matchflies into muslin draperies; a Christmas-treeis set on fire with lighted candles, ora careless hunter starts a forest fire whichburns for days and destroys valuabletimber lands. There are hundreds ofdifferent ways in which fires are set. Themajority of these fires, which cause greatloss of life and property and untold suffering,are preventable by ordinaryprecaution.
[Pg vii]This little book has been written forthe special purpose of teaching childrenhow to avoid setting a fire, how to extinguishone, or how to hold one in checkuntil the arrival of help. Each story tellshow a fire was started, how it should havebeen avoided, and how it was put out:Mr. Brown Rat builds his nest withmatches which were left around thehouse; Careless Joe pours hot ashes intoa wooden box; or boys light a bonfire andleave the hot embers, and then old NorthWind comes along and has a bonfirehimself.
At the end of each lesson there areinstructions regarding the fire in question.There are also chapters on such subjectsas our loss by forest fires, the work of ourfiremen, common safeguards against fire,