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He went out to the Conference of Mayors, which is an annual affair, in the spring of 1941 or the fall of 1940, and made a speech in which he told the mayors of all kinds of small cities, as well as large ones, that they must be prepared to protect their populations, that if we ever got into a war all kinds of dreadful things were likely to happen. Among the most dreadful things was fire. Fire was the easiest way to disconcert and to disorganize a city, as well as to destroy it with great loss of life and property. Modern fire-fighting equipment and modern fire-fighting methods and knowledge were essential.

To a certain extent I could certainly agree with him. It is true that lots of these samll cities have the most antiquated fire-fighting equipment, that they depend on water exclusively for the dousing of a fire, whereas fires that involve chemicals, fires that involve oil and some gases, cannot be stopped by water. Water is useless, and, in fact, it spreads the fire. They must be smothered with various things. Foamite was one of the early things put on the market to squelch an oil fire. That was put into use in connection with the fires around oil wells. The more you use chemicals in cities, the more water is inadequate for the handling of a fire.