SUMMARY, PLANTINGS MADE BY THE COMMISSION FROM MARION (GRANT CO.) HATCHERY Large-mouth Black Bass, No. 2 Fingerlings.... 2,500 REPORT OF MARION COUNTY FISH AND GAME PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION Small-mouth Black Bass, Advanced Fry.. Large-mouth Black Bass, Advanced Fry. . . . 80,000 19,983 6,300 106,283 115.000 7,604 Small-mouth Black Bass, No. 2 Fingerlings. Total...... 6,000 REPORT OF MADISON COUNTY FISH AND GAME ASSOCIATION 23,400 16,000 Total 39,400 H. H. FRIEDLEY, State Fire Marshal NEWMAN T. MILLER, Attorney GEORGE H. PEET, JR., Secretary The State Fire Marshal Law, passed by the Legislature of 1913, and amended in 1917, is designed primarily to assist in bringing about a reduction of our enormous annual fire waste by improving the methods of fire prevention and arousing in the public mind a sense of personal responsibility for fires. Fire marshals and other fire prevention agencies agree that about sixty-five per cent. of the fire waste is due to preventable causes, and if, through the educational activities of this department, this percentage of unnecessary fires is reduced even slightly, we will feel that our work has not been in vain. It has all along been the theory of this department that not until the public mind is convinced that a careless fire should be regarded as a crime, rather than a misfortune, can we expect any material results in the way of reduced fire losses. For this reason educational activities have been increased, believing that proper knowledge on the part of the public of fire prevention standards is essential to the success of the fire prevention movement in our State. DUTIES OF THE FIRE MARSHAL The duties of the Fire Marshal,, as defined by the statute, may be summarized as follows: 1. To enforce all state laws and city ordinances relating to (a) the prevention of fires; (b) the storage, sale and use of combustibles and explosives; (c) the installation and maintenance of automatic or other fire-alarm systems and fire-extinguishing equipments; and (d) the suppression of arson and investigation of the cause, origin and circumstances of fires. 2. To carry on educational work which may best be calculated to secure the adoption of fire prevention measures by the people. 3. To require monthly fire drills in all public and private schools and educational institutions. 4. To make regulations for the storage and handling of explosives and inflammable liquids. 5. To make inspections, upon complaint of any person, of all buildings and premises in the State, and to issue orders, when deemed necessary, for the correction of defects. 6. To keep records and statistics of all fires occurring in this State. THREE DIVISIONS OF FIRE MARSHAL'S DEPARTMENT The organization of the Fire Marshal's department has been so arranged that all work of a statistical or educational character should come under what has been termed the Statistical Division; the Legal Division to have supervision over all legal matters and arson investigations, and the Inspection Division to have charge of the inspection of buildings and the issuance of orders for the removal or repair of buildings or for the correction of other dangerous fire hazards. It will be the purpose of this report to review briefly the duties and the accomplishments of these three divisions of the Fire Marshal's department since the office was established in 1913. EDUCATIONAL AND STATISTICAL DIVISION It is an established fact that progress toward fire prevention is determined by the understanding and sympathy of the public. The educational work of the department, therefore, has been carried on with a view of so preparing the public mind that the importance of the adoption of fire prevention measures by the public may be more fully appreciated. News Bulletin. One of the plans followed by the Fire Marshal for reaching the public with fire prevention propaganda has been through the issuance of a news bulletin, mailed every two weeks to the newspapers of our State. It is impossible to estimate the great good accomplished for fire prevention work by these bulletins. By means of the bulletin, all the Indiana newspapers and their readers are furnished with valuable information with reference to the fearful fire waste of our State, how fires are caused, how they may be prevented, and other fire prevention news of vital interest. Special attention has been given to the questions of such dangerous fire hazards as the shingle roof, defective flues, accumulated rubbish in basements, attics and other out-of-the-way places, electrical appliances, and many other equally dangerous hazards. Fire Prevention Addresses. Another means of educating the public of fire dangers has been through fire prevention addresses by the State Fire Marshal, Deputy Fire Marshals, newspaper editors and educators, members of fire departments, and others deeply interested in the problem of reducing our terrible fire waste. These talks have been made before various organizations such as teachers' institutes, rotary clubs, schools, and other bodies. Such addresses have been productive of the greatest good, in that they have succeeded in reaching public-spirited and representative citizens, who, being greatly interested in questions of such vital interest to the welfare of their respective municipalities, have sought to apply to local conditions the suggested principles of fire prevention. Fire Prevention Day. Since the establishment of the Fire Marshal's office, the celebration of October 9th, the anniversary of the great Chicago conflagration, as Fire Prevention Day, has produced much good in centralizing thought for at least one day upon the immensity of our annual fire waste and in stimulating greater interest on the part of the individual property owner in correcting dangerous fire hazard conditions. Fire Prevention Day has come more and more to be recognized by public officials, civic organizations, school officials and property owners as a day upon which the principles of fire prevention should be studied, to the end that with the practical application of such principles during the balance of the year, a large proportion of the usual number of preventable fires will be eliminated. With this in view, the Fire Marshal has taken special pains to encourage a general observance of the day in the public schools of the State, feeling that the proper education of our future men and women along fire prevention lines will accomplish more and better results than can be accomplished by any other means. Numerous inquiries for fire prevention material and favorable advices reaching the Fire Marshal's office convince us that school officials have become thoroughly aroused to the necessity of appropriate Fire Prevention Day exercises in the schoolroom as a means of impressing upon the mind of the younger generation the importance of adopting every known fire prevention measure. Space permits of but a brief review of the plans suggested by the Fire Marshal for the observance of Fire Prevention Day in other directions. Mayors of Indiana cities were urged to issue Fire Prevention Day proclamations, calling attention to the necessity of appropriate action on the part of citizens; commercial clubs, county councils of defense, boy scouts, and other bodies were asked to take part in the celebration to the end that the lessons of fire prevention may be brought home to every individual. Community meetings were held in several cities and towns, at which Fire Prevention addresses were made by firemen, Assistant Fire Marshals, and others interested in fire prevention work. Fire Drills in Schools. The Legislature of 1913 passed a law requiring that monthly fire drills be held in all public and private schools and educational institutions. In 1917 the fire drill law was amended to the extent that disbursing officers were directed to withhold payment of salary of any teacher or principal failing to hold such monthly drills. To assist school teachers and principals in planning the fire drill, the State Fire Marshal prepared, and sent to every teacher in the State, a fire drill manual, containing the necessary rules for carrying out the drill. This contained also a health drill manual prepared by the State Board. of Health, the suggestions being much appreciated and commended by school teachers and officers. The need of systematic and efficient school fire drills may best be seen by an examination of the accompanying statistics with reference to schoolhouse fires. While it may be true that many of these fires occurred at times when schools were not in session, it is mere good fortune that the conditions leading up to such fires were not such as to cause fires during school hours. 42 59,137 1916 (first eight months)... Statistical Work. The Fire Marshal law makes it the duty of the Chief of the Fire Department of every incorporated city or town in which a fire department is established, the clerk of each incorporated town in which no fire department exists, and the township trustee of each township for the territory of said township lying outside of the corporate limits of any city or town, to investigate the cause, origin and circumstances of every fire occurring in any city or town or territory in any township lying outside the corporate limits of any city or town in this State, and to send to the Fire Marshal's office a detailed report showing the result of such investigation. From such reports the Fire Marshal is enabled to keep accurate sta tistics covering every phase of the fire loss in Indiana. A special effort has been made to make the statistics not only of value to the student of fire prevention but also of interest to the general public. Every precaution has been taken to make the statistics accurate. The annual report of this department carries statistical tables giving information in detail on the causes of fires and the loss to property. Want of space will not permit of but a brief reference to the statistics gathered by the Fire Marshal's office during the past four years, the following figures being intended merely to afford comparisons, by years, of some of the more striking results of our statistical work. Granting that the same loss ratio is maintained for the remaining four months of 1917, it would appear from the above that the year 1914, with 8,006 fires and a property loss of almost $8,000,000, proved the most disastrous of any of the other four years. The statistics also show that the heaviest fire loss for one month occurred in July, 1913, which amounted to $1,878,072, and that the lightest loss for any one month occurred in June, 1916, with a loss of only $212,406. An examination of the statistics prepared by the Fire Marshal's department since the office has been established reveals the fact that an unusually large percentage of the State's fire loss is attributable to four chief causes sparks from chimneys, defective flues, communicated fires, and lightning. It is safe to say that these four causes alone annually account for almost one-third of the State's fire loss. The loss experience of four years would show that the best opportunity for securing results in fire prevention is found in the cities and towns. The following table shows the percentage of the total number of losses occurring in incorporated cities and towns: This, in spite of the fact that the country districts contain but fortyseven per cent. of the population. |