SINGLE FIREMEN’S QUARTERS

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27733, 10 August 1955, Page 5

SINGLE FIREMEN’S QUARTERS

BOARD AGREES TO IMPROVEMENTS

Improvements to single firemen’s quarters were approved by the Christchurch Fire Board last evening. “We are not too happy with the single men's quarters in the central station.” said the chairman (Mr N. R. Forbes), “but in the next year or two we will get on with the new station, where the men will have up-to-date quarters. In the meantime, the men should have somethin ; done to make them more comfortable. Curtains should be provided by the board and there should be mats on the floor.” There was nothing radically wrong at the outlying stations, Mr Forbes continued. Woolston needed a new lavatory. At St. Albans one room was damp and the board was making arrangements to seal the wall. A small refrigerator and a new electric stove should be installed, and they could be moved, when the men were transferred to the new station in Cranford street. Mr Forbes said that as new outlying stations were built men would be transferred and the quarters would be better. It was expected that the Sockburn station would be ready in January, and nine men would, go there. “I was absolutely shocked at the conditions,’ commented Mr L. Christie. “I don’t know about other institutions, but the hospital porters’ quarters are of a very much higher standard.” He believed there was a very poor hot water service at the central station. and a report on it should be obtained from plumbing engineers, said Mr J. E. Jones. Mr T. Martin said he was disappointed that refrigerators had not been provided at the outlying stations. He had raised the matter before, and understood it had been rectified. At one station in the past the men had been told to float their butter on a board in the bath to keep it cool. The board asked the chief fire officer (Mr L. R. Osmond) to investigate what was necessary to improve the quarters, and granted him power to act.