City's Fire Losses High In 1966-67

Ann Arbor set the "wrong" kind of record last year. The public can make that record "right." That's the simple message Ann Arbor Fire Chief Arthur L. Stauch and the men of his department are offering local residents in this National Fire Prevention Week which began last Sunday. For the 1966-67 fiscal year which ended last June 30, Ann Arbor' s total property loss from fires was $468,091. That figure is $40,000 higher than the 1965-66 total and exceeds any other annual damage loss in the past 10 years. ;v"This is not a record to be 7roud of," Chief Stauch says. 'We preach fire safety at evcry opportunity and we encourage practices in business places and stores which will prevent fires. But it's really up to the individual himself to' ,sêe to it that his actions do notleadto a fire." "We hope of course we can reach the children on the importance of fire safety through tours of fire houses, talks or demonstrations of equipment," Chief Stauch says. "We also hope we can reach their parents on this subject through the voluntary home inspection program which continúes each spring and summer." That home inspection program in the 1966-67 fiscal year shows a total of 3,271 local homes contacted and of that number 1,835 inspected by members of fire inspection teams. More than 1,700 householders of those contacted were not at home and their homes were not checked. Chief Stauch feels the home inspection program is a key plan which annually prevenís numerous fires in the city. Inspection teams check an entire house and recommend to the occupant steps which could be taken to remove hazardous conditions. The chief notes that many of the 539 building fires to which his department was summoned in the 1966-67 fiscal year might have been prevented had home owners put into practice basic fire prevention measures. The 1,200 alarms to which the Fire Department responded was two fewer than the number recorded in 1965-66 but two major blazes in the city shot the dollar loss to an all-time record. Those two fires occurred at the Arlan Store in the Westgate Shopping Center off Jackson Ave., and the Sigma Alpa Mu Fraternity House at 800 Lincoln. Both occurred last June and were costly both in fire damage and water loss. The fire chief urged Ann Arbor residents to take a new look at their personal fire prevention program during this commemorative week which ends Saturday. He said efforts by each family in the city to prevent home fires could reduce fire losses greatly "as well as avoid the possibility of serious injury or death.