TO FIGHT FIRES

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 86, 12 April 1927, Page 10

TO FIGHT FIRES

A POWERFUL ADJUNCT

WATERFRONT DEMONSTRATION

TUG TOIA AND BRIGADE

Rotorua^s geysers were put quite s in the shade this morning on the Taranaki Street Wharf, when units from the City Tiro Brigado combined with the Harbour Board's tug Toia to demonstrate what they could do in the way of utilising the unlimited supply of Boa water to quell a fire. It is conceivable that at some time or another a big fire might tako place on a steamer moored at one of the wharves, or that a fire might occur in one of the Harbour Board sheds. Another possibility is that a big city fire might synchronise with a broken water main. In any of these cases it was demonstrated that an adequate water supply at a high pressure could be obtained from the .harbour's water.

The initial phase of this morning's demonstration was most spectacular. The steam Shand Mason engine and the new Dennis engine joined forces with the Toia, and more than a dozen jets of water were played into the air simultaneously. Tho bright morning sun gave beautiful rainbow' effects as the spray blew hither and thither. It would have needed a stupendous conflagration to survive that outpouring of water. The tug Toia then gave a solo exhibition of her ability to act as a fire extinguishing outfit. Discharged through one jet at tho rate of 2000 gallons a minute, the fountain of water rose to a height of 150 feet or so, and no quo who saw it will doubt the efficiency of the Toia when it comes to fire-fighting.

The final phase of the morning's demonstration showed what the city's fire engines, could do iii conjunction with the Toia at a distance of half a mile from the sourco of the water supply. The-tug again sot her pumps going, but this time the water-was led through half a mile of duplicated lioso to the Dennis engine which directed the stream of water into two powerful jots. The ability to do this gives the city fire engines a large radius of action without any dependence upon the city's water supply. Half a mile from any point on tho waterfront whero the Toia could pump, tho City Fire Brigade could combat a fire in spite of broken mains.

Altogether the demonstration was highly successful from, the point of view of the fire-fighters of the city; from tho spectators' point of view it was most spectacular, oven if distinctly wetting.