Areas Without Fire Protection

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26606, 17 December 1951, Page 6

Areas Without Fire Protection

Answers given by the superintendent of the Christchurch Fire Brigade (Mr A. Morrison) to questions from a cqrrespondent of u The Press ” should cause every resident in suburbs outside the city boundaries to examine the extent of his own fire protection. It is safe to say that very few householders in these suburbs know exactly where they stand. The facts are simple enough. The Christchurch Fire Board gives i full fire protection service in only area—the board’s district, which

has the same boundaries as the district of the Christchurch City Council. Outside this area, the board gives certain limited protection in accordance with agreements entered into with the local authorities concerned. The borough of Riccarton is covered by Such an agreement; another example is the residential area of Cashmere Hills. The board guarantees to attend fires in such districts only if it has the machines and men available; and if a fire should occur in such a district while the board’s full resources were needed to deal with a big city fire the call would not be answered. Similar limited protection is given certain buildings, mainly institutions and industrial buildings, by legal agreement entered into by the board and the owners or occupiers. Altogether, the board’s responsibilities—to this limited extent—are carried beyond the city boundary by some 40 separate agreements. The important thing for property owners to note is that there are areas just beyond the city boundaries—many of them growing and already denselypopulated residential areas—which have absolutely no fire protection except what the residents can devise for themselves. No property-owner or resident should take his fire protection for granted; he can ascertain the facts only from his own local authority. The correspondent who referred to the recent fire at Burwood illustrated the public misconceptions on this matter. Many residents may have been lulled into a false sense of security by seeing fire engines attend fires near then? homes. They would not know, unless they took the trouble to find out, that these fires were in premises protected by a special agreement with the Fire Board. Or again, as in the Burwood case, the brigade may have attended scrub fires in the district, failed to obtain payment for the cost of attendance, and subsequently notified the local authority that it would attend no more. Some persons have a vague but mistaken idea that in an emergency they can obtain the services of the brigade simply by telephoning the fire station and promising to meet the cost of attendance. Every citizen should know the extent of his own protection; the cost of ignorance may be very heavy indeed.