FIRE RISKS IN RAIDS

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 173, 18 April 1942, Page 3

FIRE RISKS IN RAIDS

Location Of E.F.S. Units

Bensons against proposals made by some suburban local authorities that units of the Emergency Fire Service located in residential districts should be reserved for duty in those districts and not called in to the high-risk area in the event of an air-raid, are set out in a memorandum which has been sent to the Auckland Emergency Precautions Service by the Dominion Fire Controller, Mr. IL Girling Butcher. In the recent conference held in Auckland between the Auckland and Wellington E.P.S. tire committees, Mr. Butcher states, the proposals were considered and both committees were definitely of opinion that the allocation of plant and equipment must be left in the hands of the brigade superintendent.

The emergency fire organization in the cities consists of (1) a large number of patrol cars with bucket pumps and sand units; (2) emergency trucks or hose tenders with similar first-aid equipment, also a standpipe, branch, quantity of hose and trained crew of five; (3) E.F.S. trailer pump sections; (4) the regular lire brigade, both permanent and volunteer. ' Both the patrol cars and the emergence truck squads will remain in the residential districts, but the other units will 'be used to deal with major tires wherever they occur. The .memorandum points out that first-aid and secondary equipment are effective against residential fires in the early stages so long as the water supply remains in action. If this fails, even a pumping appliance will be useless without stationery water supplies.

Training has been based on the assumption that enemy attack would be directed primarily against the business area and waterfront of a city, and that major appliances should be concentrated there. Should this assumption prove incorrect and an attack be made on suburban areas, a different disposition would be made. The self-evident purpose of aerial attack on a city would be to destroy communications, industries, and stocks of goods on which the defending forces would rely. By comparison, the destruction of suburban houses and property is only of limited national importance.