FIRE HAZARDS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 50, 28 February 1942, Page 9

FIRE HAZARDS

RUBBISH AND JUNK

OLD CASES AND UNTIDY

STORES

In the orders and directions regarding the City Fire Watching Service announced a week ago is included a paragraph under the heading: Duties of Permanent Organiser. This para* graph says:

"To require the occupier of any premises ... to remove any accumu* latibn of material on such premises that, in his opinion, causes danger from fire."

It is a" short paragraph, but it gives powers to have carried out a city improvement which the fire authorities and the City Council have wanted done for many years, but up till now have not had the right sort of authority to be able to get ahead with the job.

A year or more ago the City Council detailed some of its inspecting staff to go through some parts of the city and order shopkeepers and othei-s to clear such dangerous junk as empty fruit" and other cases from yards, and even roof tops. A good deal was done, but there are still thousands of dangerous accumulations. The fire authorities have been at, it, too, for years, but they have never had enough authority to deal with more than individual cases, and then byadvice and persuasion (and often after the damage is done) rather than with solid authority to direct and insist. ■ ,

The powers of the Permanent Organiser are clearly stated. If there are dangerous accumulations he can order their removal, and removed they will have to be, for stiff penalties are provided for failure to comply at once.

So far the one main requirement of building occupiers is that they shall send to the office of the Permanent Organiser, Colonial Mutual Buildings, the names of the building organiser and the deputy organiser nominated by them. That is the foundation of the scheme, and must be completed before the succeeding stages can be generally taken. But the clearing away of accumulations of inflammable junk—cases, packing material, timber stored on roofs, attics crammed with dangerous odds and ends—is something that owners and occupiers can begin without waiting for specific directions as to how they should go about it. It will have to be done sooner or later, and the sooner it is done the better the fire authorities will feel about hazards in this city. .