PROTECTION FROM FIRE.

Evening Post, Volume LXVII, Issue 131, 3 June 1904, Page 2

PROTECTION FROM FIRE.

Greater Wellington respon»SJßli.m.KS. •In a report on the recent Kilbirnio fire, laid bpiore the City ('ouncil last eVeniug, Superintendent Hugo givce retv80118 why tho' transit of tho steum fire cngino to Kilbirnie and its successful working there aro difficult, if not impossible. The engine is not adapted t\to running to joiburban fires, not only on account of its weight, but because its coal-carrying capacity- ia not sufficient for work at such a distance. The scant water supply on the bench and at tho baths is in unflnn ground ; and the only other supply is 1200fb from the scone of the fire. The engine is for work among big risks when thovo i» low pressure, or on the whurveH. Reasons are given in detail at length. ' The plant and men at the fire weio two reels, fifteen men, with two hand-pumps, two small chemical engines, etc. Tho Superintendent also says : " Knowing that there wna a va^ cant section on one side of tho shop and a street on tho other, and that I could not get , tho engine out there and to work in time to. save the, .shop, I did not' think it necessary tb take it. Councillor IJnrber stated that at the time* of tho fire an adequate wntor supply could liivvo been pot from a stream in the next slTeet. When an alarm of fire waa given, it was a pity that a building adjoining tho ono in which the outbreak occurred could not be &aved, seointj that, it did not catch alight until an hour after the alarm. If tho engine was. not 6\\itnb!e for transit to such a place, something that was suitable should, now that Mcl rose wns paib of the city, bo arranged /or. An old manual engine would have been able 'to confino the Kilbirnio flro to one building. Councillor JorgenßC,u stated that the details in the report did not at»reo with the particulars as he understood them. The report wnu referred to tho Fire Brigados Committee.