compelled by law to provide for an adequate fire department and water supply. 11. The law should specifically provide the process for which the cost of demolition or the repair of dilapidated buildings by this Department should be made a first lien against such premises and the manner in which it should be foreclosed or enforced. 12. Wherever possible, municipalities throughout the, State should gradually be compelled by law to introduce the highpressure system for fire-fighting purposes. 13. Any factory or mercantile establishment wherein a number of people are employed below the ground level should have proper access to the street or ground independent of any other exits through the rest of the building. 14. There should be provision made by law for safe, sane and nonsensational instruction at stated periods in the schools of the State, not less than one-half hour each month, on the subject of fire prevention and the careful handling of dangerous material within reach in everyday life. 15. There should be an amendment to section 205 of the General Business Law so as to compel the officers making a semiannual inspection of hotels to file a copy of their report with the State Fire Marshal within fifteen days after such inspection, and the Attorney-General should be authorized to bring suit against violators of the law on complaint of the State Fire Marshal. 16. Section 305 of the General Business Law should provide that the reports of local inspectors should be filed with the State Fire Marshal, and that he should enforce the penalties prescribed in section 307 for the violation of article 19. 17. In order to avoid a conflict of jurisdiction and promote more effective execution of the law by the State Fire Marshal the following laws should be repealed: (a) Section 124, which gives the State Commissioner of Labor jurisdiction to inspect boilers in factories; (b) Sections 82 and 83 of the Labor Law, as to fire-escapes on factory buildings; (c) Section 125 of the Labor Law, as to handling, storage, sale and use of high explosives and gunpowder; (d) Subdivisions 2 and 3, section 452, Educational Law, to fire-escapes on school buildings; as (e) Section 453 of the Educational Law, as to fire-escapes on school buildings; (f) Sections 302, 303 and 304 of the General Business Law relative to petroleum and its products and oils used for heating and illuminating purposes; (g) Section 83, a fire alarm signal system and fire drills,— so as to leave all these matters within the exclusive jurisdiction of the State Fire Marshal. 18. Sufficient fire protection should be afforded inmates of prisons no less than those in other institutions. 19. Fire insurance companies, in their reports of losses, should be compelled to state in each case the name of the adjuster through whom they were settled. 20. No fire loss should be paid by insurance companies until thirty days after report of the fire to the State Fire Marshal and on a certificate from him that there is no investigation pending as to the cause of the fire. 21. The inspectors and assistants of this Department should be made peace officers, with the power of arrest under the law, as experience shows that such power would often be of the greatest benefit through the possibility of instant action on their part. 22. The field officers of insurance companies should be made assistants to this Department, and the reports of inspections made by them on surveys for insurance purposes should be sent directly to this Department, or, following the Wisconsin plan, be first transmitted to such insurance companies to be revised by them, and then sent to the State Fire Marshal for action. As a result, these field officers would be additional aids to the Department, and there would be a wider and more numerous inspection of premises than is now possible with the limited force at the disposal of the Department for such purpose. 23. There should be a law passed requiring a certificate of fitness from the State Fire Marshal, to be issued after an examination to test the competency of applicants, before any person or persons will be permitted to handle explosives for blasting or other purposes. 24. There should be an amendment to the law of arson, either as a separate degree of that crime or as a misdemeanor, punishing criminal or culpable negligence resulting in loss of life or damage to property by fire. It is extremely difficult, according to the testimony of every district attorney in the State, to conviet of arson, and if such a law as indicated were adopted there would be a marked decrease in what may not technically amount to arson but practically has the same result. ROSTER OF OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES OF THE STATE FIRE MARSHAL'S DEPARTMENT ON DECEMBER 31, 1913. Thomas J. Ahearn, State Fire Marshal. George F. Roesch, First Deputy. Eugene D. Stocker, Second Deputy. James McGinty, Secretary of the Department. Patrick J. Gillespie, Chief Engineer. John F. Hoey, Chief Inspector. David Wright, Clerk. John J. Daly, Stenographer (Confidential). Michael L. Sammon, Stenographer. Adam E. Rantz, Stenographer. John T. Kane, Stenographer. Matilda Liqued, Stenographer (Assistant Confidential). Grover C. Guernsey, Clerk. Carolyn G. Bowen, Temporary Stenographer. FINANCIAL REPORT FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING OCTOBER 1, 1913. APPROPRIATIONS AND EXPENDITURES. |