A CAUSE OF FIRES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 19 November 1924, Page 8

A CAUSE OF FIRES.

DANGERS TO BE AVOIDED. ' NECESSITY FOR PROPER INSULATION, In the course of his address to delegates of the United Fire Brigades’ Association of New Zealand at the annual conference on February 13 last, Captain Hugo, Inspector of Fire Brigades made the following remarks, which in view of the outbreak yesterday, 5 we! publish for general information: A rife cause of fires, especially in residential districts—and in. that relation .likely in New, Zealand to result in more or less serious loss owing to tne almost exclusively wooden construction of dwellings, many with .scrim and napered interiors, dangerous alike to hte and property—is "the faulty insulation of domestic heatingapparatus, particularly the übiquitous gas ring; and many fires renorted .as of unknown origin are due ~to this cause The usual procedure is for the plumber to cover with a .piece of thin non sheeting the wooden shelf or boarding upon which the ;ring or other! apparatus, electric or gas, is to stand; Sometimes, as a substitute for the iron ; he uses sheet asbestos; and I ; .have come across cases where both were used, with the idea of .safety!' doubly sure. But neither one nor the other, nor both together, give anv as- : surance of safety. Such insulation is a snare and a delusion, for both sheet iron and sheet-prestos are excellent conductors of heat, hiding what goes on beneath, until one dav or night an outbreak occurs that, unless detected right at the start, quickly destroys ,-its own evidence, and another fire of unknown origin has taken place. During the course of our inspections I and my assistant have come across .scores of i 5? t€ntia l outbreaks. As a practical illustration, I have her© for your inspection a piece of 12in by 9in by lin kauri board, covered with . ", vamsed iron sheeting nailed around all four sides. .Upon lifting jthe iron,it. was found that, as you can see, a cir T cular hole 3in in s diameter was ’burnt' right through the hoard. In this case an outbreak anight have 'taken place’ at any moment; and, as the exhibit uas taken from under a gas ring in a 'bathroom situated in the centre of a ;yery large scholastic institution, where between 70 and 80 girl boarders slept • nightly,, speculation .as -to what might, have occurred is best left to the imagination. / I have also in my possession a 12in by 12in by lin marble; slab, with the wood ,on which -it wajs mounted. slab stood an electric kettle, the .heat vfrom which penetrated the slab, charring the wood be-i neath. An authority sets down the: icitio of beat conductivity as follows: “Given cast Iron as ,5000, slate is 500 G 350, oak timber : 168, and concrete 100; so that cast iron .permits heat to! pass 50 times - quicker than does concrete.” A .practically safe mounting ror the smaller .gas or electric-heating apparatus is a 2in concrete slab,’moulded, with corner legs lin high, ’ j-the neater to be made a .fixture on the. stand ; _all gas .piping -to be of ■ metal—’ no rubber tubing to be used, ilnsula- 1 tion of heating: .apparatus of any -Be4 scription, when used ?for .the protection 1 of wood, .should have air space tween, such installation and the wood it is intended'to * .(