NEAFC 31st Annual Conference.pdf - New England Association of ...

NI~W ENGLAND ASSOCIATION OF FIRE CHIEFS
About seventeen years ago, I joined the State Department of Education, leaving
the position of principal of a junior high school. Because I had done no public speaking
at that time, I went cver to Harvard and took a few courses in public speaking,
she has done in introducing fire prevention education into the schools of 19Iassachusetts,
and one of the things that we were taught first, was to get your audience in a friendly
frame of mind by telling-one or two stories to them. ~
Well, safety education:; doesn’t lend itself to very funny stories, but I do know
that I heard a gag at a commercial safety meeting, and this was it. They took a poll of
the number of television sets in .-the saloons of a certain town..’They went about and
looked them over and counted them, and when they got the grand total, it was staggering!
(Laughter.) It takes a moment, doesn’t it?
Now, I fancy that you gentlemen all drove up here to this meeting, and I also
found in one of our magazines this little anecdote or stow and I am .interested in fire
prevention. If you must "Sing While You Drive," at forty-fiVe miles per hour, sing
"Highways are Happy Ways." Then, at fifty-five miles per hour, sing, "I’m but a
Stranger Here, Heaven is my Home." At sixty-five miles, sing, "Nearer My God to
Thee." At seventy-five miles, sing, "When. the Roll is Called up Yonder, Fll Be
There." At eighty-five miles, sing, "Lord, I’m Coming Home." Try to remember that,
when you are on your way home.
I am primarily a schcol teacher and ~in educator, and what I have to say may not
be exactly pertinent to your business, but I have tried to bring out in what I have to
say, what we are doing in the public schools of the Commonwealth.
Evidence that man has failed to adjust satisfactorily to his changing environment
is made patent by the appalling number of fatal and serious accidents caused by carelessness
and ignorance in the use of new inventions and disccveries.
The widespread and general use of electricity, today, is responsible for many accidental
deaths and. d,e-structive fires.. In a large city, a dressmaker hastily closed her
shop at night, leaving an electric iron plugged in. In the morning, a large part of the
business section was in ruins, with millions of dollars’ worth of property lost.
One in. ten fires of known causes is of electrical origin. Faulty wiring and faulty
apparatus are the causes of by far the greatest number of these fires. Too many individuals
still believe that a blown fuse may .be successfully replaced by a penny, used
as a makeshift.
Too many housewives still run electric cords under rugs, where they are subjected
to constant wear, or these same women are indifferent to worn insulation on lamp or
other cords.
The use cf gasolir.e and its derivatives for cleansing purposes has proved, a very
expensive proposition for many women. One woman filled her washing machine in
the .basement with gasoline to cleanse blankets. A spark caused an explosion that killed
the woman and her helper, and wrecked the house.
The widespread use of friction matches and tobacco has caused nearly 30 per cent
of all fires from !lrtown causes, over a ten-year period. An article entitled: "Nitwits
smoke in bed," cites many instances Of fatal accidents and serious fires caused~ by this
careless habit.
=One, ironically enough, concerned "George Andre, a professiona! fire-eater in
vaudeville, who was burned to death in bed when the cigarette he was smoking ignited
the bedclothes."
129