FIRE PRECAUTIONS.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19735, 27 September 1929, Page 15

FIRE PRECAUTIONS.

BRITISH HOTELS. (ntOM Otm OWI COBBSSrOVBZKT.) LONDON, August 23. Mr C. P. Bennett (Auckland) has written a letter to "The Times" because he has come to the conclusion, after a good deal of travel in the Mother Country, that arrangements to cope with possible fire are insufficient. He writes: — On a recent motor tour embracing nearly 5000 miles from John o' Groat's to Land's End and from the East Coast to the Welsh Coast, I have, not unnaturally, looked for means of escape in case of fire in all the hotels —both public and private—l visited. While the hotels in Great Britain are comfortable in their appointments, they are, nevertheless, in the main, mostly of ancient desigft, and the great majority are devoid of necessary exits in case of fire. It is not uncommon to find that some of these delightful old inns have been enlarged and modernised, but it had evidently not been considered necessary to provide for the safety of guests in case of fire. In one place it was deemed adequate to indicate by a notice in a passage that an emergency exit would be found through "No. 10 Boom." After some trouble I located this important room, only to find it locked and apparently occupied. Mr Bennett remembers vividly an hotel fire in Auckland, and he says he never settles down for the night in any hotel without finding out the position of the fire escape. He has made public his views after having talked the matte* over with other tourists. He has found them of the same opinion.