100 Years Ago This Week: May 4-10

From The Indianapolis News, Monday, May 7: The city council unanimously voted to make Indianapolis a “fireproof city.” Mayor Charles Jewett asked for the ordinance which establishes an “efficient, standardized system of fire prevention” with the creation of a fire prevention bureau operating as a division of the city building commissioner’s department. The director of the bureau and his assistants, who will be city firefighters detailed to the bureau and known as fire prevention inspectors, will take effective steps to reduce fire hazards. Special provisions include a ban on the storage of motion picture film in the same building where there is a theater or assembly hall. This prohibition is in response to a tragedy last year in which six persons died in a building where a fire started among the films being cleaned in a basement workshop.