PREVALENCE OF OVEN FIRES

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27709, 13 July 1955, Page 12

PREVALENCE OF OVEN FIRES

LACK OF CLEANING BLAMED

Dirty ovens, rather than electrical faults, caused most oven fires, Mr W. E. Olds told the Christchurch Fire Board last evening when it expressed concern at another 15 overt rires in the last month. Mr Olds said he had made inquiries since the complaints at recent meetings and had been informed that the film of grease inside ovens was the main trouble. At the same time he was surprised that few ovens were equipped with thermostatic control.

“A tin of cleaner costs a lot less than a fire,” said the chairman (Mr N. R. Forbes).

“A bit of petrol costs even less,” said Mr J. E. Jones, but other board members loudly objected to the use of inflammable materials. On the suggestion of the secretary (Mr S. F. Marshall) it was agreed to try radio advertising against oven fires, warnings already being printed on the back of M.E.D. accounts with the advice that the best first-aid action was to leave the oven door closed and turn off the power. . It was suggested by Mr L. Christie that cleaner manufacturers might feature the danger of dirty ovens in their advertising. “How many dirty ovens would you say there were in Christchurch?” he asked.

“About 120 per cent,” said Mr Olds. The return of fire calls received in June, with the figures for the same month last year in parenthesis, were:— general, 44 (25); chimney, 16 (16); herbage, grass and rubbish, 8 (10); false automatic alarms, 12 (15); justifiable false alarms, 13 (8); malicious false alarms, 2 (5); total, 95 (79).