FIRES ON SHIPBOARD.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 91, 19 April 1893, Page 2

FIRES ON SHIPBOARD.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—The occurrence of t_*o tires in frozen meat ships during the last six months, is of great importance to every person shipping goods, to every sailor or passenger travelling in ships similarly situated. The enquiries in both these fires have shown thab they have been due to the spontaneous combustion of their charcoal insulation. Seeing, that nob only frozen meat. ships, but every -teAtner carrying passengers is provided wibh a cool room ior keeping fresh provisions, and that every one of blio.e cue! chambers is insulated by charcoal, a material which is now wellknown to be subject to .pontaneoun combustion—it follows that the general public ;as v.eil as seagoing people are interested in the question. That steamers should bo soul :to ses involving property of tho value of ono hundred millions n year, aftet the danger has become, known, is a matter for insurance and mercantile people to consider. But that tens of thousands of sailors and scores of thousands of pas- ! sengcra should ho sent to sea in | steamers usiiiif the charcoal insulation, I a material ox far greater danger ; than gunpowder, ia of infinitely more I importance, inasmuch as it concerns ; tho safety and the lives of everyone of the I great .crowd of sailors and passengers who go to .-ea iv these charcoal insulated I steamors. The inquiry on the Ruahine'a tires demonstrated that tho fumes of car- ' bonic acid gas developed by burning char- ! coal aro oTsubtle and poisonous danger i hardly less than the tendoncy to epon- ! taneous combustion inherent in the char coal insulation.—l am, etc., J. C. FIRTH.