FIRE DANGER

Hokitika Guardian, 15 January 1935, Page 5

FIRE DANGER

USE OF PETROL NEED FOR GREAT, CARE. *Per Pitas Association.—Copyright.] CHRISTCHURCH, January 14. Although fire brigades throughoi the country have issued frequent wari ing about the need for care in the u< of inflammable liquids, like kerosem or those capable of forming an explo ive mixture with the air, like petro damage and injury from fires arisin from these causes continue to be con mon. The superintendent of the Chrisi church Fire Brigade (Mr C. C. Wai ner), commenting yesterday. .on th severe injury on Friday of a woman a Hamilton, whose clothes caught fir when she was cleaning a Stove wit

a kerosene rag, said that the occu

rence showed how easy it was for .per pie to forget that though petrol were, very. useful in'tlip):hoJ*nf they had to he used with extreme carr The danger was greater, of cours with petrol, not only because jt vapor ised more rapidly and, mixed with air was a strong explosive, but becaus nowadays it was in more common us than kerosene. .Besides the isoveri burns, sometimes resulting in death which people often suffered in the care

less use of such liquids, every fire bri gade had constant experience of disas trous fires, causing great destruction o property. ■■ Mr Warner was astonished at th< things some people did with kerosem and petrol. It was quite common to us< paper or tinder soaked with kerosene t( start a fire. That was not so bad, bul many people did not hesitate to pom kerosene from a can on to a fire tlial was not burning well. The danger of i flash back of fire iri such a'practice wai very great. The height of folly, however, went so far as to .throw motor spirit on' to a fire to make it burn more brightly. It seemed impossible that anyone would be so foolish as to dc such a thing, yet- it was done' very often. If used with due respect petrol was an excellent servant. The fact remained that the tendency of petrol tc vaporise,. forming an Oxplosi with the air, had been thb cause of many a disastrous fire and of serious injury or death for many persons. The motorist had coine to use it very carelessly and contemptuously, and The housewife also had become 'so accustomed to it as a useful help in domestic cleanliness that she was too often heedless of the danger involved. Motor-spirit ‘Vapour {had been known to ignite at a distance of 40 feet from the source of the liquid. Petrol was volatile, and evaporated at ordinary temperature.; ,Wlien agitated, a s when moved aboiit in a petrol tank, or even when used for cleaning clothes, it vaporised rapidly, s'. Onetenth of a pint of petrol, properly mixed with air, had an explosive force equal to that of 1 lb of dynamite. danger of using petrol anywhere within range of a flame could be judged from that. The danger eating in the careless use of petrol was due; as the superintendent of the Wellington Fire Brigade had said in a warning last week, to: 1 ; the volatility of the spirit; 2, the relatively small percentage of vapour necessary- to form an explosive mixture with air; 3 the readiness with which the, vapour could be ignited by a spark or flame; 4, the heavy density of the vapour, enabling it to travel ,pi; flow considerable distances without mixing with the air, and thus forming eventually an ignitable mixture at some distance from th e original course.

Petrol was invaluable for cleaning clothes in the home. In using it, however, people should jemember its inherent danger, ;pid make sure thatthere was rio flame or spark anywhere about. Often explosions and fires were caused when petrol was being used in this way because people forgot that there was a gas ring ?j r stoVe :burning somewhere nearbyj. ? Even the spark of a cigarette at such times, when the air in the room where the cleaning was being'done became laden with petrol vapour, was dangerous. Mr Warner also mentioned tin danger of bridging celluloid o r other composition comb was in her hair.-Tins fire. There had been the case of a woman who had been drying her hair m front of a fire, forgetting that a composition comb was in her hair. The ahd caused the highly inflammable comb to arid th e woman had been very severely hurried. . A child p ajing with a celluloid toy in front °f the fire had also been burped in a similar way. ’ U