Whangarei Buildings Need Fire Escapes

Northern Advocate, 13 January 1948, Page 7

Whangarei Buildings Need Fire Escapes

WHAT would you do if you were caught in a blazing building in the heart of Whangarei, perhaps on the top floor, with your eyes blinded with smoke, your sense of direction completely lost, and with the knowledge that there was no fire-escape to the ground at least two stories below? Furthermore, the building you are in is old, full of inflammable material, and the people about you are panicking. What would you do? The chances are that you could do nothing.

This is the considered opinion of several of Whangarei’s most experionced firemen, and responsible citizens of the community are becoming increasingly alarmed at the inadequate fire equipment of nearlv all Whangarei buildings. This is a sweeping statement, but the truth of if is only too evident to all who take the trouble to investigate the position. There are whole blocks of buildings in the business area, each with only one or two fire-escapes among them. Structures with fire-escapes often have them at the most inconvenient positions; under some windows and not under others which are in just as dangerous situations; at the backs of the premises and not at the front, or, alternately, at the front and not the back.

stroke their chins and appear to take the attitude that “it can’t happen here.”

The recent fire in the heart of Whangarei shows that it can happen here, , and the Ballantyne’s disaster, in which 41 lives were lost, shows that “it" can be extremely dangerous anywhere. As far as the Whangarei Fire Brigade is concerned, several members of long experience said that there were some buildings in the town to which they were expecting calls at any time, and into which they would by very chary of going if a call did come.

They were of the opinion that sucii buildings should be adequately fitted with fire-escapes or, as .in the words of one, “they should be demolished." To declare such buildings to be unfit for habitation would be a very drastic step, but to fit them with escapes would not be at all difficult, though most of them can never be made really safe. The Whangarei Borough Council intends to discuss the matter of fire prevention and fire-fighting, with all their attendant problems, at a future date, and it is expected that the result of their deliberations will be a tightening of the regulations.

And very few of these buildings show any evidence of having been planned with a view to making them fireproof. A retired member of the Whangarei Fire Brigade put the position strongly, but perhaps he put it fairly when he said: “Most of the buildings are just death traps !” “Some of the more restrained opinions were: “I don’t think that any of them are fit to light a match in.”

DUST MENACE “With most of them, anyone caught in a fire would just have to jump.” “The only thing that worries me is: When is it going to happen?” Brigadesmen were at pains to explain why even a building which is built to be proof against fire must have a fire escape. Dust is one of the greatest menaces to the safety of a building. Even in a structure made entirely of ferro-concrete, with no inflammable furnishings (from which few are free) dust of a highly dangerous character is likely to collect. This dust is in a very finely divided state, and can collect under floors, in ceilings and wherever it can hide from the caretaker’s eye^ Even the dust of such materials as iron, stone, silica and others normally considered non-inflammable, can form n highly dangerous source of fire, and can make a good blaze from spontaneous combustion.

It stores up heat from the sun or from its immediate surroundings, until that heat passes the danger level, and the substance combines with the oxygen of the air, giving off flame in the process. If there is enough dust in the atmosphere it may not only catch fire, but explode. In his case, the most fire-proof building in the world would soon be a mass of flame. STAIRWAY USELESS This is where fire-escapes come in. A stairway is useless, even if it is of steel or concrete, but especially if it is made of wood, as is too often the case. The draught up the well of the stairway gives it all the qualities of a furnace, and makes it the last thing to be relied on in an emergency. The only method in which confidence should be placed is escape by an outside ladder, preferably of steel construction.

The shell of a building is usually the last part to go, and attachments to the outside of this are fairly safe for some time after the interior and all other means of egress are an inferno. Commonsense, therefore, would seem to dictate that a fire-escape should be .placed within easy access of all windows at any height above the ground. This practice seems to have been forgotten in the construction of too many of Whangarei buildings, as it has in many other towns and cities of New Zealand. An inspection of the backs of entire blocks of premises in the business area will show one after the other with banks of windows set in walls entirely bare of ledges or other footholds, and here and there an isolated fire-escape.

JUMPING SHEET In the words of a member of the Whangarei Fire Board, “It is just not good enough.” The Whangarei Fire Brigade has for some time been campaigning for a jumping-sheet, but at best this can only be a substitute for the safer means of escape. Too many people, when their attention is drawn to such dangers, merely