REPORT ON FIRE SAFETY

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31383, 31 May 1967, Page 1

REPORT ON FIRE SAFETY

(Parliamentary Reporter)

WELLINGTON, May 30. On the eve of the presentation by Mr J. Mathison (Lab., Avon) of a private member’s measure on fire safety, the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr Seath) today released the report of a special committee set up by him to consider the adequacy of existing fire safety legislation. The measure is known as Mr Mathison’s Bill: it is similar to measures presented by him in 1964 and 1966. He will introduce his bill tomorrow. Mr Seath said the report would be a valuable guide to the Government, but added: “Generally speaking, the report does not reveal any major shortcomings.”

Included in the recommendations are:

That the 1949 Fire Services Act. should be amended < to impose a statutory duty on owners or occupiers of buildings in which large numbers of people assemble to provide effective evacuation ’schemes and panic prevention drills to the satisfaction of the fire authorities concerned.

The types of buildings to which the recommendation applies should be defined in acc-'’“tance with a formula to be supplied by the Fire Service Council.

Owners and occupiers of large retail stores should be requested to ensure that there are adequate aisles between stands and any code of requirement should be drafted accordingly. That all multi-storey hotels, boarding houses and apartment buildings with more than 10 bedrooms above ground floor level should be required to have an automatic fire-

alarm system complying with the rules of the council of Fire and Accident Underwriters’ Association—connected where practicable to the nearest fire station. The same recommendation was applied to large singlestorey hotels, boarding houses and apartment buildings with long corridors and having more than 30 bedrooms, or where a substantial amount of combustible material had

been used in the internal construction of the buildings. That a new section should be included in the Municipal Corporations and Counties Acts for the licensing of boarding houses and apartment buildings. That the Department of Internal Affairs should reconsider the question of whether “coffee houses” should be included in the definition of public buildings for licensing purposes.