Proclamation 3421—Fire Prevention Week, 1961

Whereas an unconscionable num­ber of lives and approximately a billion dollars worth of property are lost each year because of fires which could have been prevented or controlled; and

Whereas our communities and the Nation can ill afford this inexcusable waste of our resources:

Now, Therefore, I, John F. Kennedy, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the week beginning October 8, 1961, as Fire Pre­vention Week.

I urge State and local governments, the American Red Cross, the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, and business, labor and farm organizations, as well as schools, civic groups, and pub­lic information agencies, to observe Fire Prevention Week by bringing fire safety facts effectively to the attention of the public. I call upon all citizens to understand and personally support the fire Prevention and control efforts of their respective community fire departments. I also direct the appropriate Federal agencies to assist in this effort to reduce the shameful waste caused by preventable fires.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

DONE at the City of Washington this twentieth day of July in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and eighty-sixth.

JOHN F. KENNEDY

By the President:

DEAN RUSK,

Secretary of State.