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Mr. A. L. Coey: Los Angeles, February 28, 1933 9215-3-W Your l e t t e r February 22nd, attaching copy o f Mr. Bracken's l e t t e r February 20th to Mr. Knickerbocker, w ith referen ce to f i r e and fu rth er p o s s ib ilit y o f f i r e hazard, Las Vegas water system: In company w ith Messrs. Bracken, Wilson and Anderson, I inspected lo c a tio n where f i r e occurred on February 19th, and found that grass and brush in v ic in ­i t y o f the 24” redwood pipe lin e from s e t t lin g basin down to the fence en closin g the new r e s e r v o ir was burned, and, as a re s u lt, the wooden blockin g underneath the pipe lin e also caught f i r e and was scorched and charred somewhat; in a d d ition th ereto , the outside o f the redwood pipe lin e i t s e l f was scorched and charred a very l i t t l e . N eith er the blockin g nor the pipe i t s e l f was s u ffic ie n t ly damaged to req u ire rep a irin g or renewal. However, i f the f i r e had continued and had not been extinguished promptly by Messrs. Bracken and Hennsler and others, da,mage would have occurred. Mr. Bracken stron gly recommends that th is pipe lin e be buried. When question came up some time ago r e la t iv e to burying the 16" wood stave pipe lin e between the concrete r e s e r v o ir and the shop grounds, I did not agree w ith the p ro p o sitio n , as, from an engineering stand­point p a r tic u la r ly in that t e r r it o r y , I do not think i t ad visab le to do so. The s o il is a lk a lin e and unquestion­ably would ra p id ly eat in to the iron bands which hold togeth er the staves, and in a short w h ile i t would be necessary to uncover the lin e and make e n tir e renewal o f the iron bands or at le a s t major rep a irs . Leaks would continue to develop and maintenance would be rather ex­pensive. From the concrete r e s e r v o ir down to the shop grounds we have two water lin e s , one 24H C .I. pipe, which is buried in the ground, and one 16” wood stave pipe lin e p a r a lle lin g the C .I. lin e , but the wooden pipe res ts on wood blocks and is lo ca ted above the ground. I f the wooden lin e were to f a i l or burn, the 24" C .I. lin e would s t i l l supply our requirements. However, above the r e s e r v o ir , between th is poin t and the s e t t lin g basin, the situ a tio n is somewhat d iffe r e n t in that we have only one 24" wood stave pipe lin e , which runs from the s e t t lin g basin in to the concrete re s e rv o ir with a by—pass in to the 24" C .I. lin e and the 16tt wooden lin e mentioned in paragraph above. I f the 24" supply lin e