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I• <br /> WHY CONTINUE TO HAVE HOLOCAUSTS? <br /> NATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF CAPTOL STOCK INSURANCE <br /> COMPANIES <br /> A fire swept through a four-story dormitory causing the <br /> death of six aged men and injuring 17 others. The <br /> principal reason for the large death toll was <br /> asphyxiation by superheated, toxic gases carried to <br /> upper floors by open stairways, elevator shafts and <br /> other vertical openings. <br /> The cause of the fire is unimportant. However, blame <br /> for the spread of the flames and poisonous fumes can be <br /> laid squarely upon the cause of most tragic fires in <br /> multi-storied buildings - unprotected vertical <br /> openings. <br /> In the four-story section there was an open elevator <br /> shaft with trap doors but these doors were of little <br /> value in stopping the spread of smoke and gases. <br /> Primary cause of the - rapid spread of gasses which <br /> involved the upper floors was the frame-enclosed <br /> stairway without doors which extended from the basement <br /> to the fourth floor in the west end of the building. <br /> This fire, again emphasizes the need for adequate laws <br /> to safeguard human lives, particularly in buildings <br /> containing sleeping quarters. An essential feature of <br /> all such legislation should be the enclosure of all <br /> vertical openings except when, under certain <br /> conditions, sufficient protection can be provided by <br /> automatic sprinklers. <br /> In cities maintaining fire departments it may be <br /> sufficient to depend upon the instantaneous <br /> notification of the fire department through the <br /> operation of thermostatic fire alarm systems throughout <br /> buildings of two or three stories. Some existing <br /> structures may be in such a dangerous condition that it <br /> would be justifiable to require the installation of <br /> sprinkler or thermostatic alarm systems in addition to <br /> protection to vertical openings. <br /> The experience in many thousands of old tenements, when <br /> compared to the good record of the tenements and <br /> apartment houses built under proper building code <br /> requirements, proves beyond a doubt that these serious <br /> losses of life by fire undoubtedly will become more <br /> serious as the buildings age. <br />