FIRES CHECKED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22615, 31 December 1936, Page 11

FIRES CHECKED

SUCCESSFUL YEAR FEWER CALLS REOEIVED i DECREASE IN TOTAH. LOSSES WORK OF AUCKLAND BRIGADES If no serious fires occur before midnight to-night, the Auckland Metropolitan Fire Board will be able to look i hack on 1936 as a year in which its I efforts to prevent fire losses have been j remarkably successful. To date this I year the total number of calls and the total fire losses are both considerably j below the corresponding figures for last year. The figures themselves speak : volumes for the efficiency of the various brigades, and also suggest that excellent results are being obtained from the instructional work which is carried out by the board's officers from time to time. In reviewing, the year's activities yesterday, Mr. W. L. Wilson, superintendent of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, stated that the total number of calls for the 12 months was 665, compared with 814 last year. Fire losses suffered in the board's area amounted to £29,701, compared with the total of £59,952 for 19.55, a very gratifying decrease of £32,251. No Unusual Outbreaks "No fires during the year were caused in any unusual fashion," Mr. Wilson said. "The outbreaks generally originated from dropped cigarette ends, from accidents caused by children playing with matches, from electric irons which had been left switched on, and from sparks from copper ' fires. This list of causes reveals some of the everyday risks which should bo guarded against by the public. Sparks from railway engines have still been responsible for causing grass fires." The calls received by the board's brigades were classified by Mr. Wilson as follows, the 1935 figures being given in parentheses:—Grass or rubbish fires, 113 (292); property, 268 (249); chimneys, 94 (84); electrical faults, 12 (16); justifiable false alarms, 119 (107); malicious false alarms, 59 (66). It was also shown that 326 of the calls were received by telephone, 247 froi" street fire alarms, and 37 from private fire alarms. Good Saves Effected Although there has been a marked reduction in fire losses, figures quoted by Mr. Wilson tend to show that more valuable property was endangered by fire this year than last, and in consequence the work of the brigades was all the more meritorious. The total insurance on buildings to which calls were received during the year was £1,163,895, as against £772,093 in 1935. The corresponding figures for the contents of buildings are £1,198,718 and £140,476. The figures show that property valued at £2,362.613 for insurance purposes was menaced by fire during the year, and the board's staff succeeded in confining the actual losses to £29,701, only a minute fraction of the total value involved. The largest individual fire losses suffered during the year were as follows:—Sutgerland's tannery, Onehunga, £2738; chair factory, Ruru Street, £2460; private dwelling at Mount ; Roskill, £1640; clothing factory of Ambler and Company. > Limited, Wellesley Street West, £i355. Automatic Alarm Systems The experience of the brigades during the year was that the private fire alarm systems installed in many large city buildings were functioning excellently, and proving a most efficient form of insurance against fire. Occasionally, owing to a sudden rise in temperature, an installation would be responsible for an automatic false alarm, but that caused no concern, as it proved that the individual system was carrying out the work for which it had been installed. In at least one case during the year, an outbreak of fire in the premises of Alexander Harvey and Sons, Limited, in St. George's Bay Road, an immediate call from an automatic alarm system enabled the brigades to prevent serious loss. Additions to Plant Mr. Wilson also stated that additions to the board's plant during the year comprised a new and highly efficient unit as first machine at the central fire station, and a new Dennis pump which had already arrived in Auckland, but which had not yet been delivered. Arrangements were being made to acquire a site with the intention of erecting a new headquarters station to replace the present station in Pitt Street. The personnel of the board at present consists of 196 officers and men, serving at 14 different stations.