TELEPHONE IGNORED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27345, 22 March 1950, Page 4

TELEPHONE IGNORED

Practice Criticised FIRE CALLS DELAYED The practice adopted by some firms of giving preference to inward business calls at the expense of intercommunication calls was criticised by members of the Dunedin Metropolitan Fire Board at the monthly meeting last night. The matter arose when the superintendent’s report was being discussed In the report the superintendent. Mr F. C. Laidlaw stated that a fire had recently been extinguished in a large manufacturing concern. There had been some criticism of the brigade for the time it had taken in getting to the building. “ Investigations proved, however, that the brigade did not receive the call direct from the premises but from onlookers in a nearby building,” the ‘report continued. “It has now been learned that the delay was entirely the fault of the company’s telephone system for the operator had instructions not to answer inter-communi-cation calls until all inward business calls had received attention.” It was decided to write to the company and ask it to change its methods of communication so that a repetition of the situation might be avoided.