FIRE STATION

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21646, 3 December 1935, Page 12

FIRE STATION

ADDITIONS TO BE ERECTED BOARD PROPOSES TO RAISE LOAN To provide quarters for married firemen and their families the Christchurch Fire Board proposes to make a large addition to the Central Fire Station in Lichfield street.Application will be made to the Local Government Loans Board for permission to raise a loan of £9500 for the work, which, when completed, will remove a serious restriction which the present building has for a long time placed upon the board and its staff. The new building will be a twostorey one in* ferro-concrete, and will provide quarters for 12 married men with their familes. These quarters will be in the form of comfortable flats each with four rooms and offices, with modern conveniences. The duties of firemen 4 require them to be at the station for most of the 24 - hours of the day, and it is essential in the interests of the board and the men that they should have quarters for their families at the station. The present building has room only for six families beside the single men, and the necessity for better accommodation' has long been recognised by the board. Extra allowances have had to be made to the married men whose families have, lived elsewhere, and the erection of the new building will eliminate this expense.' The provision of quarters for married men at a fire station is by no means a new policy. It. has been adopted by many fire boards, although in other centres of the Dominion the staffs consist mainly of single men, and there is not the necessity that has arisen here for married men's quarters. The new building will be erected on an area of about a quarter of an acre. Negotiations for the raising of the loan have yet to be completed, and plans are still being prepared for the building. It is not known yet when the work can be started, but as soon as permission for the loan has been obtained the work will probably be pushed ahead rapidly.