WASTAGE BY FIRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20977, 14 September 1931, Page 10

WASTAGE BY FIRE.

STEPS TO CHECK LOSS.

EDUCATIONAL CAMPAIGN.

GOOD PROGRESS BEING MADE

[ IJY TEMiOUAPir.—OWN < 011 RESPONDENT. ] AVKLLINfI TON, Snturdny.

According (o information given to-day by the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon. P. A. do la Perrelle, good progress has been made with (he campaign recent Iv inaugurated to reduce tho Dominion lire waste. The Minister staled that a critical study of tho position showed that the excessive fire losses experienced during the past few years were due in the main, not to any want of up-to-date equipment or personal efficiency in tho fire brigades, but to tho fact that too many iire.s were allowed to occur; or, in other words, that effective measures were, not taken to prevent fires. To show that, tho great majority of fires were preventable, tho Minister quoted the following list of fires, taken from the Government Statistician's reports for tho years 1925-29: — Electric irons and heaters .. .. 1,104 Clas stoves, rings, etc 020 Candles, kerosene lamps niul stoves . . Smoking and misuse of matches . . 2.050 Sparks from fires inside buildings . . Airing clothes before fires . . . . 1,05(1 Hot ashes in wooden containers . . '244 Fat,, etc.. boiling over on stoves . . '2lo Using pptrol inside buildings . . . . 1 .'57 Sparks from chimneys, rubbish fires. etc., outside buildings . . . . 034 All Due to Carelessness. These fire.s. the Minister commented, represented nearly 80 per cent, of tho total number of which tho cause, was ascertained and it would ljo noted that they were practically all duo to some form of carelessness.

The reports of firo brigade superintendents every year mado it. clear that a large proportion of fires either started in accumulations of rubbish or inflammable material, or such accumulations helped to spread the fire. The question of cleaning up both dwellings and business premises was therefore closely linked with fire prevention. Arrangements were being made to hold a Firo Prevention and Cleanup Week throughout New Zealand in the early summer—the exact date was at present under discussion with the local authorities—and in tlio meantime, with a view to rousing public interest, a series of broadcast talks on fire prevention have been arranged to Lc given from the four main centres. Lessons in Schools. Another phase of the question that was being taken up was the teaching of the subject in the schools. Experience in other countries had shown that no fire prevention activities were of greater importance than this school work. Children wore readily interested by the novelty of the lessons and .not only did the teaching result in giving the rising generation some definite appreciation of the economic waste flue to unnecessary fires and the common causes which produce this waste, but by their keenness the children provided an extremely valuable corrective influence in checking unsafe practices in the homes. The Minister also referred to a statement which appeared in the press in Christchurcli and which would give the impression that as ample powers were already available for holding inquests into incendiaristic fires, no action was to be taken on the lines of the' Minister's recent statement. The Minister said that this was not the case, but arrangements were being made for the Police Department to make more particular investigations into all fires and any cases which presented abnormal features or where there was any indication that the fire might be due to incendiarism would bo referred to the district coroner with the request that he should hold a public inquiry.