Harry S. Truman photo

Proclamation 2804—Fire Prevention Week, 1948

August 14, 1948


By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Whereas each year preventable fires claim the lives of thousands of the men, women, and children of this Nation and cause permanent disability to many thousands more; and

Whereas the destruction by fire of our natural and created resources has increased so alarmingly throughout the years that it threatens to cost our people three quarters of a billion dollars in the year 1948; and

Whereas this problem, with its social and economic implications for the future of our Nation, demands the active interest of every citizen; and

Whereas, following the recommendations emanating from the President's Conference on Fire Prevention, held at Washington in May 1947, most of our States and many of our municipalities have organized and established facilities for more effective protection against this devastation:

Now, Therefore, I, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the week beginning October 3, 1948, as Fire Prevention Week.

I earnestly request that, as a Nation and as individual citizens, we dedicate ourselves during that week to waging a year-round campaign against the menace of fire. I invite the state and local governments, the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, the National Fire Waste Council, the American National Red Cross, business and labor organizations, churches and schools, civic groups, and agencies of the press, the radio, and the motion-picture industry to cooperate fully in the observance of Fire Prevention Week. I also direct the appropriate agencies of the Federal Government to assist in every feasible way in making the public aware of the grave need for concerted fire-prevention activities.

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 fifth day of August in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and seventy-third.

Signature of Harry S. Truman

HARRY S. TRUMAN

By the President:

G. C. MARSHALL,

Secretary of State.

Harry S Truman, Proclamation 2804—Fire Prevention Week, 1948 Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/287264

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