FIRE AUXILIARIES

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 182, 29 April 1933, Page 12

FIRE AUXILIARIES

Island Bay Complaints DECISION REAFFIRMED At the March meeting of the Wellington Fire Board, the superintendent of the brigade, Mr. C. A. Woolley, reported that he had been inquiring into the matter of non-resident auxiliary members of the brigade, and the service they had given in the Island Bay district. As a result he recommended to the board that these auxiliaries be dispensed with altogether, and that the money they cost be expended on the appointment of additional residential auxiliaries at the Constable Street station. Following upon the superintendent’s report, a letter was received and read at yesterday’s meeting of the board from one of the auxiliaries concerned. Tiie writer pointed out that the auxiliaries were only liable to be called out between 5.30 p.m. and 7.30 a.m., and that during the eleven months referred to in Mr. Woolley's report there were only fen calls in all. and only five during the periods when calls could be made on local non-residential auxiliaries. and that the attendance at such calls had under the circumstances been satisfactory. The writer detailed tiie means by which auxiliaries were called to a fire, and explained that there were occasions when the engine from Constable Street with a full fire-lighting unit would often reach the fire before the alarm was given to the auxiliaries. In the course of his reply to this letter. Mr. Woolley said the answer was contained in the complainant’s letter, where lie had described how the nonresidential auxiliaries were called out to a fire. He (the superintendent) had been called upon to reorganise the brigade. and lie considered the first tiling to do was to dispense with such out-of-date methods, which resulted in the brigadesinen being on the spot before the local auxiliaries put iu an appearance. Mr. Woolley said he had not in his report criticised individuals, but the system under which they were called upon to act. It was his duty to do his best to modernise the tire-fighting system of Wellington. The board reaffirmed its previous decision regarding tlm dispensing with non-residential auxiliary firemen in the Island Bay district