FIRE CALLS A RECORD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24803, 31 December 1941, Page 6

FIRE CALLS A RECORD

■- ) ■ /•. • - • REVIEW OF BRIGADE’S YEAR EPIDEMIC OF MALICIOUS ALARMS Features of the City Fire Brigade.’s year have been that a record number of calls has been received, and that the number of maJicibds ialse^afermi has been extremely high. 2 The.bfjgade turned out on 709 occasions in --the twelve months up to last night, and 78 of these were malicious alarms, said to have been caused principally'- by juveniles. The perpetrator* of this annoying and. dangerous offence .have at times been dealt with v in the-. Children's Court, as '*na!k:io«u»<4darßu| ;aft; regarded seriously by the brigade. Two tires involving loss of life occurred within • two months.. The first took place at Si Clair, where a woman met her death: and .the other demolished the grand stahd at Logan . Park, a man being burned to death. The last occasion on which a fatal fire occurred in Dunedin was in June. 1930. 11 years ago:' . Vr One himdred and forty-eight fires caused damage to property, the two most serious outbreaks being at Logan Park and the gutting of Messrs Sargood, Son, and Ewen’s factory. In all the operations this year, only one fireman suffered injury, and sifter treatment for shock, he was discharged from the Hospital. False alarms caused by automatic devices totalled 74 during the year, and the 34 accidental calls were caused I mainly by jets of steam and excessive heat within factory and warehouse premises. Chimney fires numbered 238 considerably above the total recorded last year. Gorse, grass, and rubbish fires (106), and justifiable false alarms (41) were an average recording.