Proclamation 3027—Fire Prevention Week, 1953

Whereas during the past year fire has taken the lives of some 10,000 of our people and has permanently maimed countless others; and

Whereas the destruction of property by fire has risen to the highest peak in many years, resulting in a monetary loss of nearly a billion dollars; and

Whereas the conservation of lives, property, and natural resources is a matter of the utmost importance to our Nation; and

Whereas it has been abundantly demonstrated that fire losses can be substantially reduced wherever people are awakened to the danger:

Now, Therefore, I, Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the week beginning October 4, 1953, as Fire Prevention Week.

I earnestly request all our citizens, during that week, to initiate a year-round campaign in their homes and in their communities against the needless waste of life and property caused by destructive fires. I urge that State and local governments, the American National Red Cross, the National Fire Waste Council, the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, and business, labor, and farm organizations, as well as 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 also direct the appropriate agencies of the Federal Government to assist in this crusade against the loss 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 31st day of July in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and fifty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and seventy-eighth.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

By the President:

JOHN FOSTER DULLES,

Secretary of State