Proclamation 3595—Fire Prevention Week, 1964

Whereas fires, most of which could have been prevented, caused the loss of approximately 12,000 human lives and destroyed over a billion dollars worth of property in 1963; and

Whereas this shameful waste of human and material resources demands immediate community action to reduce this scourge to an irreducible minimum; and

Whereas far too many fires are caused solely by the carelessness and apathy of individual citizens:

Now, Therefore, I, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the week beginning October 4, 1964, as Fire Prevention Week.

I urge State and local governments, the American National 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, to develop and employ effective means for disseminating fire safety information and recommendations to all citizens throughout the year, and promptly to undertake other effective community actions designed to eliminate the causes of preventable fires. I also call upon all citizens to understand and personally support the fire prevention and control efforts of their respective community fire departments.

Appropriate Federal agencies will assist in this effort to reduce the intolerable 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 sixth day of July in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and eighty-ninth.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

By the President:

GEORGE W. BALL,

Acting Secretary of State.