FIRE DRILL IN HOSPITALS

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23417, 26 August 1941, Page 8

FIRE DRILL IN HOSPITALS

NO ARRANGEMENTS AT AUCKLAND

CHAIRMAN OF BOARD “HORRIFIED”

(P.A.), AUCKLAND, August 25. “I was horrified when I went to the Auckland Hospital on Thursday morning to see if there were Rny arrangements for fire drill, and found that there was none whatever,” said the chairman, Mr Allan Moody, at a meeting of the hospital board to-night, when speaking to a recommendation by the buildings committee that the acting-superintendent, Dr. W. Gilmour, be instructed to organise a proper system of - fire drill for the institution. Mr Moody said he had been informed by Mr W. L. Wilson, superintendent of the Auckland Fire Brigade, that years ago the brigade had trained the orderly staff in fire drill, but it was not being done now. It was a disgrace that there were no _ fire drill arrangements in an institution of the hospital’s size. He had discovered the position by a mere fluke. Mrs T I. Dreaver, M.P.: Whose fault is it? Mr Moody: The board’s. The medical administration. The lay administration. Everybody’s fault.

He added that from to-morrow morning he proposed to have fire drill in operation. Members of the board could reasonably have assumed that something was being done, and he would take his full share of the blame that it was not.

Mr Moody said he also had something to say about the Health Department. In the’ domain there was. a beautiful new building, with places marked “Fire”; but not a piece of hose anywhere. "That is your Health Department for you. The latest hospital structure in New Zealand and that is the position,” he added. Mrs Dreaver: The Y.W.C.A. did not have any equipment until the E.P.S. found out.

Mr J. Guiniven moved that the matter of fire drill at the hospital be left in the chairman’s hands for immediate action. “I would not trust the city organisation after the Burns fire, because it seems to me that they could not put out a fire in a dog’s house,” he added.

The resolution was carried, and the recommendation adopted. Whether consideration had yet been given to the departmental circular on fire prevention and fire escapes at hospitals, dated August 1, 1939, was asked by the Director-General of Health (Dr. M. H. Watt). In a letter to the board. Dr. Watt recalled that the board had deferred the matter at the time. It was decided to defer the matter, pending receipt of a report at present being prepared by the acting-architect on fire prevention for emergency purposes.