Fire Engines And Next One-way Traffic Stage

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32120, 16 October 1969, Page 14

Fire Engines And Next One-way Traffic Stage

The Christchurch Metropolitan Fire Board decided last evening to recommend to the City Council that when the next stage of one-way traffic streets is introduced, traffic lights in Kilmore Street and Barbadoes Street should all go on to red when fire engines are called out from the headquarters station in Kilmore Street. The board decided on this recommendation after the council had put alternatives to it. The Chief Fire Officer (Mr F. A. Hardy) said that when the siren was sounded in the watehroom, the watchkeeper would pull a switch which would put the lights at the intersection of Kilmore Street and Barbadoes Street on red. The City Council had said that the fire engines would be allowed to turn right and go against the traffic flow on the left-hand side. Mr Hardy said that seconds would be saved if all traffic at the intersection was halted by the lights. To questions, he said it would take 31 seconds to get the first engine away from the station and nine seconds to get to the lights. Going round the block would take much longer.

Mr D. T. Stickings said that this would mean negotiating four corners and leaving and rejoining traffic flows. It could add up to a minute to an engine’s time on calls to the south and east of the station. Mr Hardy said that the fire engines could go through the lights only at a slow speed, and the drivers would have to keep a look-out. There would be no street sirens to sound when the lights went red at the intersection.