FIREMEN ALARMED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 272, 16 November 1935, Page 17

FIREMEN ALARMED.

EXTINGUISHERS "DOCTORED." DANGER- OF EXPLOSION. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) NAPIER, Friday. Hastings, which • has a disturbing reputation in the matter of false calls to its fire -fighting services* is encountering a new form of mischief. Firemen have lately discovered a practice which expresses itself in interference with patent extinguishers, resulting not only in destroying the efficiency of some apparatus, but also in nmking other equipment dangerous to handle. The superintendent of the brigade reported to the Fire Board this week that at a recent fire it had been found that a largo patent extinguisher had been emptied of sulphuric acid. A subsequent examination of another extinguisher in the same premises disclosed that it contained a double charge. It was sufficiently serious that the first extinguisher should have been rendered useless, but perhaps an even greater danger was that of the condition in which the second had been left. The superintendent stated that had the extinguisher with the double charge been used it would probably have exploded, perhaps with fatal results.

"Firemen are very concerned about this," he paid, "and the result is that Hastings is now probably the only; brigade in the world which has had to have its'extinguishers sealed. It is only by sealing, however, that we can know that they have not been tampered with. To liave them sealed, though, is a disgrace to the brigade. Members of the brigade have got the 'wind up' about it and tliey are not keen to use extinguisliers unless they see that they are sealed and could not have been tampered with. They will not be willing to take any risks."

The frequency of false alarms in Hastings has long been a matter of concern which police action and vigilance have been unable to check. A few months ago there was a short period during which the practice became ex--ceedingly serious, no fewer than twelve false alarms being recorded in quick succession.