THE "ORIENTAL" FIRE. Another Object Lesson.

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 74, 30 November 1901, Page 8

THE "ORIENTAL" FIRE. Another Object Lesson.

FROM time to time the urgency of needed reforms is driven home to the dullest understanding by some pieventible calami ty The fire that consumed the Oriental Hotel on Sunday night, devastated a great deal of valuable property, and sacrificed at least one human life, is the latest case in point No proverb is so often m our mouths as that the safety of the people is the supreme law, but our practice tails woefully short of the precept Take the Oriental as an illustration. Here was an old rookery of a wooden hotel suffered to exist in the leading business thoroughfare of the capital city of the colony • • It was built on the old-fashioned plan— narrow , tortuous passages, in which a strange lodger would easily lose his way. Narrow, winding steep stairs, down which one would, as likely as not fall headlong in the dark Means of fire escape a single lope attached to a bolt under certain windows Just the sort of building, in short, to become a regulai death-tiap if the fire started from the basement The mercy of it is that the fiie on Sunday night did not ongmate from beneath If it had, the holocaust which would have ensued is too dreadful to contemplate The unfortunate inmates— 01 the gieat majority of them— must have inevitably perished Still, the wondei is that many lives were not lost undei the circumstances The alaim was promptly given, but the peril was extreme and the escapes were marvellous » * * The city authorities must accept a large share of the blame for the loss of life, the personal injuries, and the destruction of property Parliament warned by similar catastrophes m the past, had armed them with plenary powers to compel the amplest j>rovision for the people's safety in hotels, lodging-houses, and so forth Those powers came into existence in January last Nine months slipped by before the Wellington City Council woke up to its duty, and appointed Fire Brigade Superintendent Hugo an inspectoi under the Act He inspected the hotels, and noting the deficiencies of the Oriental, he served the proprietary with a notice to provide means of escape within sixty days The period was nearly up, and the required provision had not been made So far as concerns the knotted ropes, which were dignified with the name of "fire escapes," they may be excused on the principle "any port in a stoim ' but their measure of value m such an emergency is gauged by the fact that many of the

terrified inmates of the hotel, employees as well as lodgers, found, or saw, no rope at all, but flung themselves in desperation from the windows, trusting to blind chance. One young man escaping from the top floor, reached for the rope, missed it, and only caught it as he was falling. *■ * *■ The "Oriental' is but the type of a class of hotels which is pretty numerous in Wellington — obsolete old structures, with primitive appliances, and altogether behind the times m eveiy respect They have long since seived then day and generation Public safety demands a complete levolution m the methods of catering foi the public accommodation A gieat responsibility lies upon the City Council and Licensing Committee' Human lives are at stake m this mattei Parliament has furnished them with ample powers to safeguard those human lives, and it is then clear duty to insist and make certain that hotels and lodginghouses shall be constructed and equipped on up-to-date lines, and that at night the utmost vigilance shall be observed * * * It is not too much to make the renewal of hotel licenses contingent upon the rebuilding of modern hotels with brick and stone, the plans to be submitted for approval to the Licensing Bench This was done years ago m Auckland, with excellent results It should be compulsory also to employ night-watchmen to regularly patrol all parts of the premises during the silent watches of the night Those who cater for the accommodation of the public must do so undei strict conditions It is a piofitable business, and the primary obligation of those who undertake it must be to afford ample security to then patrons