CHIMNEY FIRES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 228, 26 September 1934, Page 7

CHIMNEY FIRES.

" BY-LAWS UNJUST."

PENALTY ON OCCUPANTS. SUPERINTENDENT'S OPINION. By-laws imposing a penalty on occupants of houses in which chimney fires occur were condemned as unfair and out-of-date by Superintendent W. L. Wilson at a meeting of the Auckland Metropolitan Fire Board this morning. When Mr. Wilson presented a report which showed that of 61 calls answered by the brigade from August 15 to September 19, 22 were to chimney fires, Mr. J. B. Paterson suggested that householders should be warned of the danger of chimney fires and reminded that they were liable to a penalty for allowing their chimneys to catch alight. "In 30 years' experience, I know of only one case where a fire in a chimney lias caused another fire," said Mr. Wilson. "That was in a hotel, where a chimney was blocked and the licat of the fire set the woodwork surrounding the chimney alight. The by-laws saying that a person letting his chimney catch fire can be prosecuted date from the time when most houses had shingle roofs, which might have been set alight by the sparks, but nowadays, when most houses have iron roofs, there is no danger. The by-laws arc unjust because a man can let his house catch on fire, menacing other houses, without being prosecuted, and because only one householder here and there, and not everyone who lets his chimney catch fire, is prosecuted." A special report on chimney fires was submitted by Mr. Wilson, and was left in the hands of the chairman, Mr. J. J. Kingston.