BURNING GAS JET FOUND AFTER FIRE

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25445, 17 March 1948, Page 6

BURNING GAS JET FOUND AFTER FIRE

With Deputy-Superintendent G. Barnes and civilians, he helped to remove unburned parts of the ground floor of Congreve’s building at 9 o’clock on the night of the fire. The parts would occupy only a few square yards. Under it was a gas jet which was still burning. The jet was extinguished by water. Next day he superintended the opening of the strongroom, in which the trolleys were •‘all over the placq.” • Mr Watson: Did‘they appear to have been put in hurriedly or in a leisurely, orderly manner?—As if they had been put in in a hurry. To Mr T. P. Cleary (for Ballantyne’s): He did not see girls in Goodman’s building as the engine drove up. While he was at the engine waiting for Officer Burrows’s return he did not see girls in either Goodman’s or Pratt’s buildings nor hear any calling out. Was there anything to prevent you and the other two men at that engine seeing the girls?—There was nothing to prevent us, but my attention was concentrated mainly on the alleyway, and I did not look along the building any time during Mr Burrows’s absence. I thought he was in the first part of the building. Would it be fairer to say you glanced along but did not pay any special attention to the building?— Yes. “The evidence,” remarked the chairman, “is thqt the girls only appeared once or twice and went away. If he looked up to the top of Goodman’s building he would see very little more than the heads.” Mr Cleary: My comment is that he would see as much as anybody on the street. Waiting for Officer’s Return “If you had known Burrows was not in Goodman’s building, would you have waited for his return?” asked Mr Cleary. “I would definitely have gone in,” replied witness, who said that while he was waiting he formed no opinion whether it would become a major fire. To Mr C. S. Thomas (for accident underwriters interested in the risk): The flame split in the north-west corner of the first floor of Congreve’s building. There was no fire then on the Colombo street frontages of Pratt’s and Goodman’s buildings If any fireman knew of the predicament of the girls, he was the officer to whom a report should have been made.

Mr J. D. Hutchison (for the Fire Board) objected to the word “predicament” being used in the question. It was not a predicament when the girls were first seen.

Mr Thomas: Civilians for 10 minutes pointed out to firemen that girls were up there. The chairman: Only one or two people. The word “presence” was substituted for “predicament.” Kr Thomas: Did it not strike you that you were in duty bound to look for fire escapes while you were waiting for Mr Burrows?—l did not think anybody at all was in the building. Was there anything, up to the time Mr Burrows gave you instructions, to warrant, in your opinion, the turning of the hose into the building?—No. You could not judge that Mr Burrows knew what was in the building and

what conditions were. I did not. Ybu saw nothing to force you to put a lead in?—No. There was .no fire whatever.

Mr B. A. Barrer (for three unions): Had you been informed, when you arrived at the fire, that it had been going for 15 minutes, might ybu have taken a different view of the possible seriousness of it?—That would be a matter for the officer-in-charge. In one or two buildings in Christchurch comparable in size vffith Ballantyne’s, fire alarms were now being put in; most had alarms installed. The brigade training was not to use water to cause damage. To Mr Hutchison: He would attend between 400 and 500 calls a year and had attended thousands of calls. The man w'ho spoke to Officer Burrows at the entrance to the alleyway kept repeating about an electric cable; the man remained at the entrance. The order for the brigade call came from just before the flames broke through. To Mr E. A. Lee (for the City Council): Since being an officer, he had not been in charge of a major fire. If the M.E.D.- did not arrive to attend to power lines, a call was ordered by the officer, the telephone number of the M.E.D. was at the watch-house and was not carried on the engines. Are discussions held after fires on mistakes?—l don’t admit there were any mistakes. (Laughter.) The burning gas jet found was ip the cellar of Congreve’s building, at the south-eastern corner. It was an ordinary household jet. Cellar fires invariably developed much smoke. Ballantyne’s cellar fire presented no problems as they approached it. Locating of Fire

To Mr E. D. Blundell (for the fire underwriters): The No. 11 crew must have worked smartly to get a lead into the alley when Officer Burrows and he reached it. He had to standby until he received instructions, unless the fire broke out somewhere else. It might take longer than five ‘minutes, to locate the seat of a fire.

His impression was that Officer Burrows had gone into Goodman’s building with the man in shirtsleeves, said witness, in reply to Mr W. H. Mathison (for the Fire Brigades’ Employees’ Union). The smoke coming out of the alley was black and had a tarry smell.

The gas main shown in a photograph of the cellar was the pipe he had referred to, said Officer Oakman to Mr Watson, who mentioned that the meter had been burned away. The chairman: We had not heard anything about this. Mr Watson: It contributes little of any value. Most of the alarm systems in big buildings in Christchurch operated at both the Fire Station and inside the buildings, said witness to Mr Watson. Some buildings had manually operated alarm systems. After fires officers discussed the methods of fighting; he could not remember any conference of officers being called. When the chairman was questioning Officer Oakman as to how he could see the flames through the ground floor of Congreve’s building, Mr Thomas intervened that the witness was probably quite right, as lead-light glass was above the wooden partition and the flame could be seen from the street.