Fire Dangers

Press, Volume C, Issue 29609, 4 September 1961, Page 12

Fire Dangers

The Government should heed the plea by the chief fire service officer of the New Zealand Fire Service Council (Mr T. A. Varley) for proper study and revision of the law on fire safety in buildings. The plea may be given additional force when inquiries into the fire that swept through one and a half acres of Government buildings on Aotea quay, Wellington, are completed, for this may well prove to be a case where bad design of buildings contributed to the spread of the fire. Mr Varley speaks no more than common sense when he says buildings must be designed, managed, and used with fire safety in mind from the beginning; and he shows how difficult it is for designers and engineers to do this in New Zealand. From 13 government departments with responsibilities in this matter conflicting edicts emerge. One result is that it is sometimes impossible for persons designing buildings to find out from local authorities what they should do and with what rules they should comply. The position is further complicated because, of the 256 local authorities concerned, only 154 have bylaws that govern fire safety at the time of construction. Mr Varley quotes the proposed cotton mill at Nelson as a case in point; the architects' representatives had looked for by-laws and could not discover any. Mr Varley mentions also an engineer of a £3.5 million building who, in default of guidance from a local authority, had sought help from him. Even a local authority may flout its own by-laws The chairman of the Hastings Fire Board recently told the Hastings City Council (and was not contradicted) that the council was not observing its own by-laws on means

of egress from public buildings. With so much confusion prevailing the Government should step in.

Losses of life and property in fires are heavy. Last year 32 persons died through fire, and in the previous year 27. Last year property loss through fire was about £2,388,300 and in the year before about £3,000,000. As Mr Varley says, “ what “burns never returns”. He complains that his efforts to improve the situation have been “a cry in the “ wilderness so far ”. The cry should certainly be taken up in Parliament when the estimates of the Internal Affairs Department (which administers the Fire Service Council) are discussed.