LIGHTING OF FIRES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 5, 7 January 1944, Page 4

LIGHTING OF FIRES

HOUSEHOLDERS WARNED

The heavy burden that has been thrown on to the Wellington Fire Brigade recently by the prevalence of gorse fires calls attention to the obligations imposed on householders who wish to destroy garden and other rubbish by outdoor fires. In every case personal application must be made to the nearest fire station for a permit to burn, arid the practice is to grant a permit for a reasonable period, dependant on the circumstances. A fire cannot be lighted or permitted to remain alight between the hours of sunset and sunrise, nor at any time on a Sunday, which includes Christmas Day, Good Friday, and Anzac Day. It cannot be lighted within ten feet of any building, fence, street, public place, or adjacent land, and the wind must allow of a fire being lighted and kept alight without danger of . its spreading. A further important responsibility of a householder, particularly in a city like Wellington, is to see that no nuisance is caused to neighbours by smoke.

Because of the shortage of labour in the collection of garbage, residents have been asked to bury or burn as much of their household rubbish as possible. The safest way to burn such refuse is in a hole in the ground, but here again a permit is required.

The burning of gorse or similar growth falls into a different category, the granting or refusing of a permit following an inspection by an officer of the Fire Brigade.

Householders are warned that lighting fires without permits renders them liable to prosecution. Apart from any other factor, it is quite possible that persons seeing fires burning outside the authorised hours would send an alarm, adding further to the arduous work being done by brigadesmen.