WATER PRESSURE

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 24, 28 December 1925, Page 7

WATER PRESSURE

CONTINUES VERY LOW. FIRE SUPERINTENDENT’S STATEMENT. The Fire Brigade received a call at 8.30 this morning to the residence of Mr F. Jackson, in Beresford street, where a barrel of tar had caught alight. The application of sand, followed by a light lead of water, quickly extinguished the burning material. The water pressure at the time was in the region of 501 b but at 11.15 a.m. it was as low as 381 b, and the superintendent of the brigade, Mr W. H. Barnard, had some comments on tho matter to make to a reporter. He drew attention to the figures for the hours of 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. inclusive for last Wednesday in the water pressure record book at the central station. The pressures recorded for tho hours named were:—2slb, 20, 25, 25, 25, 40, 35, 45, 40, 45, 50 50, 62, 70, 75. It had repeatedly been pointed out, said Mr Barnard, that the brigade needed a pressure of 1001 b for efficient firo fighting, and the low pressures obtaining at present were a distinct menace to the safety of the town. “We' would be in trouble all the time in the event of a big fire occurring under the existing conditions,” he stated, adding that he feared to leave the station for any length of time. One of the essentials in brigade work, he explained, was to have a good weight and pressure of water—that was necessary to “break” a fire. It was not nearly sufficient to merely pour water on to a blaze. One had to break up a burning mass into particles to deal with it effectively and quickly, and that could not bo done with a pressruo of 251 b.

He was quite aware that restrictions were placed on the use of garden hoses, but that was of little avail unless the Borough Council made an example of some of those who continued to offend in times of abnormally low pressure. He instanced the case of last Monday when, at 7 p.m., the gauge recorded a pressure of a bare 251 b, that figure in his opinion being largely accounted for by tho indiscriminate use of garden hoses. There was also to bo taken into account the fact that, at the hospital, the pressure was 10 to 121 b lower than at the main fire station. The whole position would be grave should a serious outbreak of fire occur and it behoved the Borough Council to attend to the' deviation of tho pipe line from Tiritea at the earliest possible moment.