LIBRARY OF THR UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 1 GIFT OF OF THE UNIVERSITY | HOW TO BUILD A HOTEL FRANCIS C, MOORE IRESI1>ENT OF THE CONTINENTAL, INSURANCE COMPANY NEW YORK HOW TO BUILD A HOTEL. In view of the number of fires occurring, almost daily, throughout the United States, in buildings occupied as hotels, resulting, in only too many instances, in the loss of life, it would seem clearly to be the duty of everyone possessed of knowledge, no matter how acquired, as to ways and means of preventing fires, to give the benefit of that knowledge to the public, and particularly to those about to erect hotels. With this conception of duty, I have pre- pared the following pages. They are the result of careful study of the fires occurring in hotels throughout the past twenty years not only those insured by my own company (themselves not few in number), but those which have occurred, whether insured or not, from Maine to California. Not content with my own theories and investigations, I have taken the precaution to send the proof of these pages to various experts of niy acquaintance underwriters, adjusters, architects, builders, and to hotel proprietors themselves, with request for a careful revision and suggestions. Having taken such pains to secure a consensus of judgment, I present the result to those who may be interested, without diffidence, because I can claim they are not my own ideas merely ; believing there are few omissions, and that those who contemplate erecting structures which are to shelter, during the night hours of the greatest danger, their fellow-beings, who will be helpless because unconscious, will do well to study and follow the advice presented. Certain considerations are of such vital importance that it would be almost sufficient to name them merely, without argument or explanation, were it not that much of the detail necessary to carry them out would be misunderstood by those owners who have not practical knowledge of construction. F. C. M. 112689 How TO BUILD A HOTEL Construction. Fire-resisting construction* for hotels involves considerations so simple that they should occur naturally to any thoughtful person. The most important of these is the prevention of air drafts which would draw flame from one story to another. Almost the earliest practical lesson learned in life in connection with lire is that com- bustion is accelerated by a good draft, and that lire, for want of a draft, will burn slowly, if, indeed, it does not expire, as it certainly will if deprived of oxygen, even to the extent that a closed room of small dimensions has been known to suffocate an ordinary flame. But the child, who learns to open the drafts of a stove, both in the stovepipe and at the bottom of the stove, seems to forget, in maturer years, the danger of having such drafts in the build- ing in which he lives and sleeps as are afforded by staircase shafts, elevator shafts and the hollow spaces in the partitions and outer or enclosing walls. The dimensions of each upright flue be- tween the studs of a partition are often greater than the square inches of throat capacity of the chimney of the house, and flame getting access to such air passages in improperly constructed build- ings will go as rapidly from cellar to roof as from a fireplace through the chimney to find an exit. * To those wishing to build fireproof hotels, a pamphlet on " How to Build Fireproof " will be sent upon application. 6 HOW TO BUILD A HOTEL. I, therefore, dwell first upon the importance of cutting off all communications from story to story, of whatever character, as the most important step to be taken to insure slow combustion, rapid extinc- tion arid the confinement of a fire to its floor of origin. The maximum of safety and the minimum of danger would be secured if the only passage- ways, staircases, elevators, etc., for getting from one story to another were entirely outside of build- ing. This, of course, is not practicable, but it is entirely practicable and ought to be a provision of every building law that all communications of this character from story to story should be in a sepa- rate enclosure of brick walls, with fireproof doors at the openings, and in buildings of larger ground floor area than five thousand square feet there should be at least two such systems of staircases, one at each end of the structure. In these separate enclosures, or brick towers, the staircases, elevators, dumb-waiters, risers for electric wires, gas pipes, water pipes, &c., &c., should be carried, and espe- cially the stand-pipes for supplying water for the extinction of fires, for the reason that the latter could be used to the last moment by firemen or by the employes of the hotel, provided the outlets for hose are near the doorways. The inmates could escape by means of stairways so enclosed, without danger of being burned. Stone stairs or iron stairs with treads are dangerous, as they crumble if exposed to fire. These enclosed hallways should be lighted throughout by oil lamps on bracket shelves, at a sufficient height from the floor to prevent their being knocked off by hurrying persons, so that in case the gas or electric-light should be cut off by a fire, as electric-light and gas systems nearly always are, these avenues of escape would not be darkened. 7 KLEVATOR SHAFTS. An oil lamp, with a red glass, should be displayed where it can be seen throughout the entire length of hallways to indicate the doors to the staircases. In fact, all hallways of a hotel should be lighted with oil lamps or caudles by night, the lamps being so arranged as to illuminate plainly printed direc- tions to the staircases. I regard these suggestions as among the most important for the safety of life, and I am confident they would be so pronounced by every practical tire department chief throughout the country. Elevator Shafts. Should be of fireproof material. Brick is best for enclosing walls. Under no circum- stances should they be sheathed with wood, or with plaster on wooden lathing ; and the slide guides from top to bottom of the shaft for the elevator car should be of iron ; they are usually of wood, which becomes soaked with oil and the medium of rapid ascent of fire. It is quite common in hotels to sheath these shafts with yellow pine, of the most ignitible character. Such was the lining of the shaft in the Park Avenue Hotel, in which disastrous fire twenty lives were lost in February, 1902. This building was in many respects one of the best fire- proof hotels in the country, having brick segmental arches in the floors. It had, however, strangely enough, elevator shafts sheathed with yellow pine ; one of the upper staircases was of wood, and, some of the partitions of rooms were of ordinary wood lath and plaster. If the inmates had remained in their rooms, however, they would probably have saved their lives. They sought exit through the hallways and were suffocated with srnoke while trying to escape. It may be mentioned here that few people are burned to death in fires ; fortunately the gases and 8 HOW TO BUILD A HOTEL. smoke of combustion suffocate them before they experience the torture of being burned. If the unfortunates in this instance had shut their doors and windows, the fire department would have ex- tinguished the fire and rescued them. The great loss of life in the Windsor Hotel fire, of March 17, 1899, was due to the fact that the fire spread rapidly from top to bottom of the hotel because the windows on every floor of the building were open, to enable the inmates to see a procession which was passing at the time, presenting the con- dition of a stove with the lower and upper dampers open. Ventilating Shafts. It is, of course, necessary in hotels to have ventilating shafts from top to bot- tom, especially on lines of bath-rooms and toilet- rooms. These shafts should always be thoroughly fireproof, without any woodwork whatever in them. They are too frequently, like elevator shafts, sheathed with wood or finished in wooden lath and plaster. The windows opening on these shafts from bath-rooms should be of metal sash, with wire glass, and care should be taken that nothing to start a fire is allowed near the bottom of the shaft. If the owner is not willing to go to the expense of brick or fireproof terra cotta block construction for these shafts (and he ought not to assume the care of his fellow-beings by night and day unless he is), metallic lathing, of the wire netting kind, should be used, as it is a valuable fire retardarit. Plaster on wire lathing will prove more economical than wooden lathing, which latter results in cracked ceilings, owing to the fact that the wooden laths are often nailed too close together and sufficient plaster is not pushed through the interstices to "clinch" or "key" and make a good job. There 9 OUTER ENCLOSING WALLS. caii be little cheating by the plasterer if wire lath- ing is used ; sufficient plaster must be pushed through to get a good "clinch" on the back of t;he wire netting. The result is a job which lasts longer and resists tire arid water sometimes for hours. While the initial cost of metallic lathing is greater than for wooden lathing, it will prove the more economical in the end, if the building should last for say ten years. Outer Enclosing Walls. The best masonry for lire resisting purposes is good, hard burned brick. Stone is not so safe, especially limestone, like granite, marble, etc. It is certain to disintegrate under the combined effect of tire and water, and should riot be employed even for templates on which to rest the ends of beams in the brick wall ; cast-iron templates should be used for this purpose. Fire-Resisting Floors. The best tioor is one of iron beams, spaced not over tive feet on centres, with brick segmental arches. Next to brick for such segmental arches in reliability is burnt clay or terra cotta. It is my opinion but there are many who enter- tain a different one that the old-fashioned brick arch is the most reliable for resisting tire ; that next to this in safety stands the porous, terra cotta, segmental arch, with end construction, i.