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mittee has ventured to include in this report, in so much detail, the information received from both parties.

STATISTICS OF FIRES-BOROUGHS OF MANHATTAN AND THE BRONX, NEW YORK CITY

A very marked increase in the fire losses from electricity for the year 1906 will be found in Table III, owing to a single loss of $200,000 due to the grounding of conductors in the plow underneath a trolley car while in the street; the employees took the car into the barn in order to get same over pit where the fire could be attacked, and, being unsuccessful, left the car stranded about twenty feet from the entrance inside the barn. The fire from the car communicated to the building, causing the loss mentioned.

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2. Chimneys, fireplaces, flues (defective), grates, etc., heat from.. 2146

1. Matches, carelessness in the use of.....

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Sparks from chimneys, stoves, stove-pipes, etc...

8. Gas stoves, ranges, radiators, explosion of or heat from, etc...

9. Kerosene, naphtha, benzine, gasolene, explosion or ignition of.. 10. Electric light wires, sparks from or defective, etc.....

1948

1629

1108

857

761

624

479

457

TABLE IX

TOTAL LOSS IN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE

Manhattan and Bronx (1902-1906, Inclusive)

Matches, carelessness in use of.....

Stoves, furnaces, stove-pipes, etc., heat from..

Electric light wires, etc., sparks from or defective..

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Kerosene, naphtha, benzine, gasolene, etc., explosion or ignition of 235,356

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The committee has incidentally received figures from other sources, which should be of interest. The following report is quoted from one of our correspondents from Boston:

"The causes of fires and alarms from January 1, 1906, to January 1, 1907, as given by the Boston Protective Department, number 3,069, as follows:

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"As will be seen by figures given, electricity compares more than favorably with either gas or kerosene, the number of fires caused by electricity in this city during the year 1906 being 60 (Fire Department figures 55), while those attributed to gas and to kerosene are (rather singularly) 142 in each case.

"The fires found to have been due to electrical causes were, with a few exceptions, very slight, the total insurance loss for the year being less than $16,000, of which sum $11,705 was due to one fire, $2,644 to another, and $591.77 to a third; that is, three fires were responsible for an insurance loss of $14,940.77 out of a total insurance loss for the year due to electrical causes of a little less than $16,000."

Figures have recently been published in various papers covering the fires in the city of Chicago for the year 1906, as follows:

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Of a total of 1,165 alarms of the Los Angeles City Fire Department during the year 1906, 39 are attributed to crossed wires, while those given as due-either directly or indirectlyto gas or gasolene are 137. The total loss was $682,735, but our correspondent did not give the relative losses from the different

sources.

The following letter is quoted verbatim from a correspondent in Baltimore:

"Replying further to your letter sent on behalf of the Com- ' mittee on the Fire Hazard of Electricity, I beg to advise that for the year ending December 31, 1905, there were within the jurisdiction of the Fire Insurance Salvage Corps of the city of Baltimore 1,571 fires and alarms, with a total loss of $410,273.06. The detailed statement of these fires gives six electrical cases in which there was no loss on building or contents, and six other electrical cases representing a loss of $1,071.63—the largest one

of which involved a loss of $509.91. These twelve cases do not include electrical fires occurring in a trolley car, for instance, nor fires reported on wire poles, of which there were two or three instances last year.

"The number of fires and the losses are not classified as to cause, and I have not made any attempt at summarizing them, but there are a large number of cases assigned to 'unknown cause,' and there are a few cases of spontaneous combustion.

"I believe that the Salvage Corps, therefore, does not show any tendency to assign electricity as the cause of all mysterious fires, nor is it evident that electrical installations are being shown by the Salvage Corps as being particularly hazardous. To this extent your second and third questions are replied to by the above information."

The Underwriters' Laboratories at Chicago have collected a large amount of statistics relative to various fire hazards. Some little time would be required to put these in shape for the use of the association, but this could readily be done if the committee's third recommendation under "Conclusions" be carried out. The manager of the laboratories has assured the committee, as he did the association last year, that these statistics would be put at the disposal of the National Electric Light Association if they so desire.

CIRCULAR LETTERS AND REPLIES

The following are the questions submitted in circular-letter form to the members of the National Electric Light Association and to the underwriting interests:

I. Is hardship entailed on the electric-lighting interests by undue publicity given to fire reports of electrical fires?

2. Is there a marked tendency on the part of the public in general to assign "electricity" as the cause. of all mysterious fires?

3. Does the idea prevail that electrical installations are especially hazardous, and is the idea fostered by the attitude of local contractors and others?

4. The tables published last year indicated that there are a number of more prolific causes of fire than

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