FIRE MARSHAL. The concern felt in recent years in the matter of fire prevention has found concrete expression in the creation of the office of State fire marshal in two-thirds of the States of the Union and in most of the provinces of Canada. In the leading countries of Europe property owners and occupiers have long been answerable for fires on their premises, and this has tended to eliminate hazardous con ditions, as have also the more substantial con structions of these older lands. In America, with much more wood construction and the abstnce of responsibility for damage to sur rounding property, hazardous conditions have tended to increase, so that the annual loss from preventable fires has become appalling. Mu nicipal fire marshals have for some year exer cised a limited authority in controlling danger ous conditions. The office of State fire marshal, sometimes under another title and joined with some existing State department, is designed to grasp the problem of fire control in a broad way by providing for the gathering of statistics, the investigation of conditions that are hazard, ous, by installation of safeguards and by the spread of intelligent interest among owners and occupiers, as well as among the young through school instruction. In certain cases,
the fire marshal is empowered to order the re moval of sources of danger and to condemn and require demolition of buildings that are so dilapidated so to endanger neighboring prop erty. There is no room to question that the present average yearly fire loss of nearly a quarter of a billion dollars value and much coincident loss of life can be greatly lessened by a strict supervision of property with a view to fire prevention. The fire marshals of the United States have formed an association for annual conference and the furtherance of the objects of their office.