In many cases water will quench fire. But in the case of oils, alcohol and other volatile liquids and grease fires water simply spreads the fire and you are in more trouble than you were at first. THE BIG EIGHT The eight firemakers in the order of their devastating power are as follows: Electrical, due to carelessness and lack of proper inspection; matches and smoking; defective chimneys and flues; stoves, furnaces, pipings and boilers; spontaneous combustion; sparks on roofs, and petroleum and its products. From 1915 to 1919 the value of fires from these causes aggregated $1,416,375,845. Is it any wonder that there is now agitation all over the United States to have at least thirty minutes given each week to the study of fire prevention? Saving the home is better even than building more homes. EXTINGUISHERS Every home, of course, should be equipped with the best possible extinguisher. There are any number of them on the market. Do you know of many motorists who refuse the call of the extinguisher? There are not many who have not one in their car, yet there are few homes with them. Large homes should have one on every floor. Small homes, even if they have not enough footage to lower their insurance rates, should have them to reduce the fire hazard. What kind should the householder buy? The chief thing here is to buy one that has no fancy method of operation, that simply by inverting the container turns on a forceful stream; light as possible in weight, not over 25 pounds and preferably about 12, so that a woman can use it. Right there it is interesting to note that _The Fireman’s Herald_ reports that women daily put out more fires and obviate conflagrations than men; that were it not for the fact that women put out so many, the fire peril would have been far greater. Other things that you must demand in the extinguisher are that it must have at least a stream of 20′ long; that there must be no suffocating fumes from the chemical’s contact with the fire; that the chemical must be as nearly stainproof as possible so that in a small fire the room is not unnecessarily disfigured. The chemical must not freeze readily at least not above 27 or 28 degrees Fahrenheit. There is one extinguisher on the market to-day that is gaining mightily in favor, because it spreads a foam over the fire and cuts off the oxygen, and the laying of the foam prevents a flash-back when the fire is nearly out. At first this was used in the extinguishing of oil fires, the heaviest and most difficult of all fires to put out. For example, where a chemical engine took an hour to do the trick this foam type took a few minutes.