FIRE DANGERS AT SEA

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 3 June 1932, Page 9

FIRE DANGERS AT SEA

USE OF COMBUSTIBLE MATERIA! INVESTIGATIONS IN BRITAIN. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, May 31. The recent disastrous fire on a foreign passenger liner has raised afresh the question as to the use ol combustible material in ship construction. The international convention for the safety of life at sea of 1920 provides for the fitting of fire-resisting bulkheads, for the establishment of a fire control and alarm system and for the carriage of fire-fighting appliances on passenger steamships, hut it does not provide that materials used in ship construction and the fitting generally should be fire-resisting. The question of limiting the use of combustible material in the construction and fitting of passenger vessels is engaging the attention of the Board of Trade, in consultation with the shipping industry, and Mr. Walter Runciman, chairman of the Board of Trade, stated in the House of Commons todav that when these investigations were completed the desirability of initiating international action would he considered.