How To Put Out An Oil Fire

Editor Argus- In connection with the fire last week it Dr. Wood-Allen's, and that of Dean & Co. the night before, where burning oil was involved, it is not amiss to give at this time a word of warning and advice. Oil lamps are an ever present danger, and where they are used great care should be used and every precaution taken to avoid accidents. In the purchase of an oil lamp see that the base is large enough to prevent the lamp from upsetting easily. In setting a lamp down, see that it is on a firm, flat surface and that it is not near curtains or other inflammable matter that may blow over the lamp and thus catch fire. Care and thoughtfulness will prevent the majority of such fires. 

Burning oil is one of the worst fires to control. The following suggestions, if remembered in the hour of need, will be found extremely valuable. Never use water to extinguish any kind of burning oil. Any kind of a chemical extinguisher will put out an oil fire, but few people have them in their homes. The writer has had occasion to put out several oil fires, and is therefore able to speak from experience. He has found that the best oil fire fighter to be found in every home is flour. On one occasion the pan of a gasoline stove was found full of burning gasoline and the fire, which was running up the wooden walls to the ceiling, was extinguished almost instantaneously by the throwing on it of a few handfuls of flour. 

In the case of persons being on fire everyone knows that the proper thing to do is to cover them with some heavy woolen material and roll them on the ground. 

It is one of the unsolved mysteries why so few avail themselves of the protection of the chemical extinguishers that can be had at so small a cost. People continue to pay out year after year for insurance, which will not put out a fire, and many times will not cover the loss, yet will not invest in an article that will prevent loss by extinguishing the fire.