"INSULATION" DANGERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18742, 23 June 1924, Page 9

"INSULATION" DANGERS.

DOMESTIC FALLACIES. NECESSITY FOR AIR SPACE. Captain T. T. Hugo, inspector of fire brigades, sounded a note of warning at the building conference in Wellington last* Friday, when he attacked a fallacy of supposed insulation. ,--^ The common. method of "insulating" gas rings, said Captain Hugo, was to attach a sheet of iron or .;■ asbestos :to the wall. Nothing, he said,; could be more dangerous, as hot only, were iron and asbestos excellent conductors of heat, but they concealed what was going on beneaQi them. It was not necessary for wood to come into contact with flame to ignite. The ; chemical change leading to combustion could come from the application; of heat. In many instances "mysterious" fires were due to this faulty insulation. W

Captain Hugo showed a piece of wood charred beneath the "protection" ■ of this so-called : ; ; : insulation, and another board which had been burned through a marble slab upon 'which an electrical' kettle had stood. The necessary, thing, he explained, was to provide air space between the insulation sheet and the wall it was designed to protect; otherwise it afforded no safety whatever". V In ?. Government ;; departments insulation was provided by '■_ a' slab of con- ; crete' two inches thick above a slab of metal. '.-"'. ; It was resolved that a recommendation dealing with the subject of Captain Hugo's address be sent 'to the : Government. •