Proclamation 2849—Fire Prevention Week, 1949

Whereas the lives of thousands of our fellow Americans - men, women, and children - are destroyed each year by fire and countless others suffer permanent disability from the same cause; and

Whereas preventable fires also destroy an untold amount of irreplaceable natural resources and of private and public property, including forests and farms, schools and churches, hospitals, homes, and factories; and

Whereas for these reasons the prevention of fires is of the utmost concern to every American citizen:

Now, Therefore, I, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the week beginning October 9, 1949, as Fire Prevention Week.

I earnestly request that during that week all of us undertake a year-round campaign against destructive fires in our homes and in our communities. I also request that State and local governments, the American National Red Cross, the National Fire Waste Council, the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, business, labor, and farm organizations, churches, schools, civic groups, and agencies of public information, including newspapers, magazines, and the radio, television, and motion picture industries, cooperate fully in the observance of Fire Prevention Week. I direct the appropriate agencies of the Federal Government to assist in arousing public awareness of the need for active participation in this crusade against the frightful toll of life and property resulting from 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 2nd day of August in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and seventy-fourth.

HARRY S. TRUMAN

By the President:

DEAN ACHESON,

Secretary of State.