Tangle Over Keys For Fire Board

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31333, 1 April 1967, Page 1

Tangle Over Keys For Fire Board

(New tealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, March 31.

Keys to 350 city premises have involved the Wellington Fire Board in a legal tangle.

The keys are for premises linked to fire stations by an automatic alarm system. They enable firemen to enter the buildings without having to smash down the doors, and are particularly useful when investigating false alarms. Recently the board discovered that possession of keys left it open to liability claims if the keys were stolen, wrongly used, or mislaid, so that fire fighting activities were impeded or delayed.

To get around this, the board sent an indemnity absolving the board from liability to the 350 firms concerned. This was signed by all but about 15 firms, which said they considered the indemnity was too sweeping, and asked for various clauses to be inserted. At its monthly meeting today, the board was faced with the choice of returning the keys to the objecting firms, or obtaining insurance cover to overcome the problem. The board decided that a sub-committee of underwriters would meet the board’s solicitors to work out a basis of agreement on liability involving the posseasion of keys.