Fire Protection in Cities

In cities and towns the safety of our own property from fire is largely dependent upon the care of others.  If our neighbor is careless, our property as well as his may be destroyed.  Under such circumstances it is necessary to have rules to regulate conduct for the common safety.  The materials with which we may build, the thickness of our walls, the construction of our flues, the storage of explosive or inflammable materials, the disposal of rubbish and ashes, and many other things, are regulated by law.  This is cooperation for fire prevention.  Much money is also spent by cities for fire protection, including water supply and organized fire departments.

FIRE PROTECTION IN RURAL COMMUNITIES

Where people live widely separated from one another, as in rural communities, such regulations are less necessary and organized fire protection is less easy to afford.  A farmer’s property may be destroyed by fire from a spark from a passing locomotive, or from the camp of a careless hunter in the adjoining woods.  There may be state laws to control such cases.  But in the main, if his property burns it is due to the carelessness of some one who lives on the premises, and he is dependent upon his own efforts to control the fire.  Improved farm water supply with adequate pumping facilities, the telephone by which neighbors may be summoned, and the automobile by which help may quickly be brought, have increased the farmer’s safety; but his chief safeguard is the exercise of care by all who live on the farm at every point where a fire might possibly be started.

FIRE INSURANCE

Fire insurance is a means of reducing the fire loss of individual property owners by a form of cooperation.  Insurance companies, operating under state laws, sell insurance to property owners.  The latter pay a small premium for the protection afforded.  From the funds produced by the premiums and the interest on their investment, the occasional losses of individuals are paid.  This does not prevent the destruction of the property, but it distributes the loss among thousands of people, perhaps in all parts of the country.

FARMERS’ COOPERATIVE INSURANCE

There are in the United States about 2000 farmers’ cooperative fire insurance companies, carrying insurance amounting to more than 5 billion dollars.  These companies are associations of farmers who elect their own directors and manage their own insurance business.  They provide insurance at a much lower rate than the ordinary commercial insurance companies.  A usual provision of the laws under which these cooperative companies operate is that no member may insure his property for its full value.  His neighbors will help him bear his loss, but will not bear it all.  This has the effect of causing him to exercise greater care to prevent fire on his premises.  For this reason insurance does reduce the actual fire loss to some extent.  Property may also be insured against loss from storm and flood.