Those who have made a study of the laws in European countries relating to personal liability for fires find it easy to account for the difference in mental attitude on this subject here and abroad. In this country, as has been often said, a fire is regarded as a misfortune and the man who has one receives sympathy. In most European countries any fire is regarded as a crime and they investigate and punish the man who is guilty of causing it; he may be the tenant or the landlord, the builder or the architect, but some one is held responsible, not only for the loss on the property in which the fire originates, but also for that on adjoining properties to which it may spread. The fundamental difference in the code of laws is that in their case a man is held guilty until he can prove his innocence, while in ours exactly the opposite is true. The Code Napoleon, the code of laws which prevails especially in France and Belgium and which forms the basis for the modern law in most Latin countries, contains two sections reading as follows:

Article 1382. Every person is responsible and liable for any acts of his by which any other person has or may have sustained any loss, damage or injury. Article 1383. Every person is responsible for any loss, damage or injury caused by his own act, carelessness or negligence.

In German cities there is an immediate investigation of the cause and circumstances of a fire, followed by a rigid inquiry and the imposition of a penalty upon those who may have violated the laws for safeguarding against fires.

The United States Consul in Charge of the Consular District of Frankfort, Germany, has recently submitted an interesting and undoubtedly typical report on the fire protection and fire record of that city, which has a population of 465,000.

The number of fires per year is about 470, whereas in a city of that population in the United States, any number of fires less than about 1800 per year would be classed as moderate or low. The municipal fire department in Frankfort comprises 277 men. Newark, N. J., with about the same population, has 711 men in the active fire fighting force.

The rare occurrence of serious fires in Frankfort is due to a great extent to the strict enforcement of regulations, which prohibit the erection of buildings over 72 feet in height, prescribe materials of construction, the storage of hazardous substances, and the con

struction of stairways, exits and lighting installations. Neglect to conform to the building and fire regulations renders property owners subject to heavy penalties.

The obvious and final solution of our fire waste problems consists then, in attention to construction features involving use of fire resistive materials, limitation of heights and areas, and protection on vertical and horizontal openings in buildings; the installation of automatic sprinkler equipments in buildings of large size, inferior construction or hazardous occupancy; the adoption and enforcement of regulations governing the storage, handling and use of combustible and hazardous materials and the safeguarding of hazardous devices and processes; education of the people as to the causes of fires, and cultivation of the principles of fire prevention and of responsibility for their own acts.

CHAPTER XXVI

CHARGES FOR PUBLIC FIRE PROTECTION SERVICE

The most important functions of public water supplies are the furnishing of a good potable water under satisfactory pressure, for domestic, commercial, industrial and public service; and an adequate quantity of water under reasonable pressure for putting out fires. The latter service is generally characterized as "fire protection service"- the more important being the public service, rendered through the agency of hydrants or other fire connections upon the distribution pipe system; and the less general though important private service, rendered through the agency of hydrants and connections to the sprinkler systems of manufacturing and other establishments.

Early history

In the early days of water works building one of two considerations usually controlled in determining the compensation for public fire hydrant service, in the negotiations leading to the establishment of the water works; first, what might be termed "the average nearby rate" or the requirement that hydrant rental and water rates should not exceed the water rates paid in the surrounding district or state, or perhaps in the nearest large city, which found application chiefly in the larger communities; and second, what might be termed the "guaranty basis"- or the requirement that the hydrant rental should be substantially equal to the interest charges upon the necessary investment, leaving the water rates to meet operation, maintenance, taxes, depreciation charges and profit, which found application chiefly in the towns and smaller cities. In short, the demand for water service and the willingness to guarantee the interest upon the necessary investment in plant, controlled rather than any equitable consideration of the cost or value of the service rendered (see Proc. Amer. Water Works Assn., 1911, p. 55).

It was not until about 1910 when studies by the Wisconsin Railroad Commission with reference to the practice within its own state; inquiries made by the United States Geological Survey which cul

minated in Bulletin 418 upon "The fire tax and waste of structural materials in the United States," by Herbert M. Wilson and John L. Cochrane; and investigations made for the Pennsylvania Water Company, the results of which were subsequently amplified and presented in a paper before this Association, upon "Some fundamental considerations in the determination of a reasonable return for public fire hydrant service" by Metcalf, Kuichling and Hawley (Proc. Amer. Water Works Assn., 1911, p.55 et seq.) that practice began to crystallize in this country along rational lines.

This movement was hastened by the admirable studies of the Engineering Department of the National Board of Fire Underwriters, which resulted in the development of a "Standard schedule for grading cities and towns of the United States with reference to their fire defenses and physical conditions," which was adopted by the Underwriters December 14, 1916. Though the latter schedule did not determine rates it did provide a standard method for rating fire protection service, which might form a reasonable basis for insuralce rate revision and standardization by the insurance companies, and thus, indirectly, it had a very important influence in improving the standard of fire protection service rendered by the water works and the fire departments of the country.

More recently valuable studies have been made upon fire protection requirements, by the Distribution Division of the Water Department of the City of Baltimore, assisted by the engineering Department of the National Board of Fire Underwriters. The results of these studies were embodied in a paper upon "Fire protection requirements in distribution system design," by V. Bernard Siems and D. Benton Biser, (Jour. Amer. Water Works Assn., vol. 11, no. 1, p. 17, January, 1924). They indicate the desirability of making detailed analyses of fire service demands in our large cities. in which consideration shall be given not only to population, maximum rate of demand for general water service, pressure, character of topography and of building construction, referred to herein, but also to structural conditions and features affecting the fire hazards, undivided floor area of individual buildings or closely grouped buildings, area and height of buildings, proximity of other risks, combustibility of contents of buildings, and fire fighting facilities of the fire department.

Gradually the basis of charge has tended toward the cost of the

service. In very few cases has it gone materially beyond this in the direction of the value of the service.

The burdens of the war period seriously reduced the rate of return earned by water works, but the rates are gradually being increased to the higher postwar level. Unfortunately, however, owing probably to the difficulty that cities are experiencing in finding adequate revenue, there appears to have been a tendency to shift a part of the burden for public fire protection service from the general tax levy to the backs of the domestic and commercial consumers of water.

The annual fire losses in the United States have always been heavy, but this condition is gradually being improved by more stringent building laws and bettering the service of the water works and fire departments of our municipalities.

The public fire protection service requirements developed by the National Board of Fire Underwriters are based fundamentally upon size of population; maximum rate of water demand for domestic, commercial, industrial and public service; pressure; character of topography and of building construction.

The basic "table of required fire flow" adopted by the National Board of Fire Underwriters, is shown in table 51.

Method of determining the annual cost of the public fire protection service

The method which has come into most general use and is recognized as on the whole the most equitable, may be outlined briefly as follows:

1. Determine the present and probable future population served by the water works.

2. Determine the average daily and the maximum daily water consumption (present and future).

3. Determine the required fire flow as measured by the standard schedule for grading cities, etc., of the National Board of Fire Underwriters, or as measured by the standards which appear most reasonable for the case under review.

4. Determine the net reproduction-cost at fair prices (or the actual cost, in the case of a recently built property) of the portion of the physical plant which may fairly be ascribed to the public fire protection service in contradistinction to the domestic, commercial, industrial and public water service. 5. Determine the portion of the annual cost of operation, maintenance and repairs chargeable to the fire protection service.

6. Determine the necessary annual depreciation allowance, taxes and fair