Proclamation 2661—Fire Prevention Week, 1945

Whereas uncontrolled fire, even in normal times, takes a heavy toll of our human and physical resources; and

Whereas the needless waste of lives and property occasioned each year by preventable fires has attained increasingly grave proportions; and

Whereas a high degree of individual responsibility and united effort are necessary to overcome this national menace:

Now, Therefore, I, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the week beginning October 7, 1945, as Fire Prevention Week.

I earnestly desire that every citizen assume a personal responsibility for detecting and eliminating fire hazards under his control and take all possible precautions to safeguard both lives and property from the ravages of fire. I also request that the State and local governments, the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, the National Fire Waste Council, business and labor organizations, the churches and schools, civic groups, and the various agencies of the press, radio, and motion-picture industry throughout the country bend every effort to the attainment of the objectives of Fire Prevention Week; and I direct that the appropriate agencies of the Federal Government likewise assist in every practicable way the enlightenment of the public with respect to the purposes of a sound fire-prevention program.

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 22nd day of August in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and seventieth.

HARRY S. TRUMAN

By the President:

JAMES F. BYRNES,

Secretary of State.