HASTINGS FIRE BOARD.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XII, Issue 233, 14 September 1922, Page 5

HASTINGS FIRE BOARD.

The Mayor (Mr. W. Hart) presided at the quarterly meeting of the Hastings Fire Board, held last evening in the fire station. There wer© also present Messrs A. Garnett, S. T. Tong. T. Thorne-George. J. W. Nome, W. G. Hay and L. W. Fowler. The report of Superintendent W. Keith stated that nine calls had heen received during the quarter just ended. The new brass helmets had arrived from Dnnedin in good order, and were satisfactory. The plant was in good working order. The report was adopted and the local committee were asked to ascertain the cause of the fusing of the wires at the last two fires. It was also decided to write to the Borough Council pointing out the difficulty experienced by the brigade in locating some of the fire plugs, owing to their being covered with road metal. Th© superintendent, in his annual report, stated that there had been 20 calls during the year, as against 28 for the previous year. The value of the property involved was £25.790 and the total insurances amounted Jo £15.205, whilst the losses totalled £9,550. A number of the fires w*ere due to incendiarism and the offenders had been dealt with. The meeting discussed the condition of the steam fire engine, and the local committee w’ere authorised to spend «* limited sum in putting it in order, and to treat for its sale The matter of whether men should be left at the scene of a fire after the outbreak had been extinguished, in order to protect the property, was also brought up. It was explained that this was in the hands of the superintendent, and in any case where there werq goods to protect, the underwriters had an agreement with the board that men should be left in charge, and so there could be no departure from ft. Whangarei wrote pointing out that fire boards should be placed on the same footing, as local bodies, with respect to tho raising of loans, and the idea was supported by the board It was stated that at present the Public Trustee had no authority to lend money to fire boards as fire boards were not in existence when the Authorising Act was passed.