CITY FIRE BRIGADES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21252, 4 August 1932, Page 10

CITY FIRE BRIGADES

PRAISE FOR, ORGANISATION QUICK RESPONSE TO CALLS -"The Auckland city fire-fighting organisation is the best and the cheapest that I know in New Zealand," declared the inspector of fire brigades, Mr. E. Girling Butcher, yesterday, when he addressed members of the Mount Eden Borongh Council on the proposal to form a metropolitan fire board in Auckland. Mr. Butcher said a large proportion ot fire loss could be covered before a brigade left its station by its organisation and efficiency. After 11 p.m. th 6 previous night, as a test, he had called the city organisation from a point between Point Chevalier and Avondale, two miles from the nearest station. The first engine, thai from Avondale, had arrived within 4m 12s, although at the time of t'iie call the men were in bed. The Point Chevalier Brigade had also quickly answered tha call. He had made a similar test in Remuera after midnight, and the first engine had arrived in 4m 255. This meant that the engines, each carrying seven men, had left the stations less than a minute after receiving the call and averaged over 30 miles an hour on the road.