NO FIRE WATCHING

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20863, 15 August 1942, Page 5

NO FIRE WATCHING

CHRISTCHURCH DECISION FIRE GUARD TO CONTINUE “We are not having a cohtinuous fire-watching service in Christchurch, at least for the pVeseht. It can’t be clone. We simply have not got the personnel,” said Mr. E. H. Andrews, Mayor of Christchurch and District E.P.S. Controller, when commenting on a message from Dunedin that instructions had been given by the National Service Department for a continuous fire-Watching service to be instituted in Christchurch and Dunedin immediately. Mr. Andrews said that the regional commissioner for the South Island, Colonel W. T. Churchward , had approved of the continuation of the block fire-watching system worked out by the Commercial Fire Guard in Christchurch, at least until the claims of the Home Guard on E.P.S. personnel had been decided, which was expected to take until the end of August. “The Christchurch system is very efficient, and although it does not provide for continuous fire-watching the great majority of the personnel Can be at their posts in a very few minutes,” said Mr. Andrews. “Many of the large firms, of course, maintain their continuous watchers. It would require several thousand men and women to put a continuous service into operation, and we simply have not got the men and women available. “We have always been encouraged by the authorities to believe that we shall get some period of warning, and even if this period is no more than a few minutes it will be sufficient for the Christchurch Commercial Five Guard to put its fire-watching service into operation.” Christchurch was situated differently from some other cities in that it had residential areas close to the heart of the city, and for most of those in the Commercial Fire Guard it was only a few minutes journey from their homes to their posts of duty.