Firemen Tired Of False Calls

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31728, 11 July 1968, Page 18

Firemen Tired Of False Calls

Volunteer firemen at Lyttelton were tired of answering automatic false alarms at the Cashin Quay transit shed, and he did not blame them, the Chief Fire Officer (Mr L. R. Osmond) told the Christchurch Metropolitan Fire Board last evening. The volunteer brigade was keen and active, but after answering so many false aiarufc, which they said had cost 500 man hours, they were almost ready to “renege", Mr Osmond said. Thai would be serious for the board. If the board had to replace

the 24 volunteers it would cost about $70,000 a year, and a valuable community service and spirit would be lost. “Not Faulty” Mr Osmond said the warnings installation in the fansit sheds was not faulty, bid it was so sensitive as a moke detector that it could give an alarm when set off by exhaust fumes from vehicles in the sheds, and once had given an alarm caused by men smoking cigarettes during a working break. The brigade had been called to the quay 35 times in the last three years, he said. They were subject to some ribald comments from other ! workers, and this was not in the interest of efficiency. “After a call this morning I they were just about to turn lit in,” he said.

In talks yesterday with officials of the Lyttelton Harbour Board and the fire alarms company that installed the detection system, Mr Osmond said, agreement had been reached that the automatic alarm system could be switched off by time clocks during working hours and reliance put on manual alarms, of which there were 24 in the quay area. This should not be a precedent for other places with automatic alarms, he said. Year’s Trial The board agreed that for a trial period or 12 months there should be switching oft of the automatic alarms in working hours. On Mr D. B. Rich’s suggestion, the Harbour Board was urged to install a sprinkler sytem.

The chairman (Mr W. R. Campbell): That is what we wanted them to do in the first place. Use Of Siren Mr Osmond said the Lyttelton volunteers were also concerned that a siren was to be used to summon the two doctors to the wharves for an emergency, and that it could also be used for a civil defence emergency by the Harbour Board. There- would be different tones and oscillations in the sirens, but some of the volun teer firemen could be working in the holds mf ships and all they would be told was: “There’s the siren. A fire.”

The board agreed to discuss sirens and warning devices with other interested organisations at Lyttelton.