FIRE PREVENTION

Southland Times, Issue 19837, 7 April 1926, Page 6

FIRE PREVENTION

AUCKLAND PROPOSAL DANGERS OF CARELESSNESS NEED FOR EDUCATION. (Special to the Times.) Auckland, Apr. 6. "Fully 90 per cent, of the fires which occur in New Zealand are directly due to carelessness, or, in other words, to causes that could be removed if the general public gave a thought to the prevention of the heavy fire loss imposed upon the Dominion each year.” This is the considered opinion of Superintendent W. L. Wilson, of the Auckland Fire Brigade, under the Auckland Fire Board. In discussing this vital question, Superintendent Wilson made every allowance for the fact that New Zealand is largely a country of wooden buildings, in which the fire hazard is great, but this did not alter his view that fires were occurring much too frequently. The seriousness of the position in New Zealand was emphasised by Captain T. Hugo, Inspector of Fre Brigades, in his recent address before the annual fire brigades’ conference in Dunedin. Captain Hugo added that the majority of these outbreaks in New Zealand could easily be prevented. Many were sheer carelessness, and, but for the general efficiency of the brigades, the loss would be very much greater, even disastrous. In his opinion, the most essential factor in the reduction of the national fire loss was better and more general education of school children, the public generally, and fire officers in particular, in the knowledge of fire prevention. These views found ready acceptance by Superintendent Wilson, who quoted from his records many fires arising from simple and easily removable causes, and showed that the organisation headed by him was doing much to reduce the fire risk in the city. For over a year now, Superintendent Wilson has had a fire prevention officer making a systematic round of visits to buildings in the city, advising owners or occupiers of their fire risk and the advantages of having fire fighting equipment on the premises. It is hoped in this way to awaken an active interest in the question of fire prevention. The special officer, not only keeps a close eye upon establishments where fire might result in heavy damage and possible loss of life, but by agreement with the owners, takes over the internal fire fighting equipment, such as hydrants and hose and chemical extinguishers. Mr Wilson said that in many cases hose and equipment were in bad shape, ’and many of the extinguishers were useless. The extinguishers were re-charged and kept in order, ready for immediate use, but it was not always possible to get the occupiers of buildings to see that it was in their interest to replace the leaky and sometimes rotten hose. In one case, a local syndicate owning two large buildings in the city had hyrants and .hose fitted on each floor of both buildings, but when the fire prevention officer made his inspection, it was found that the hose was somewhat old, and the owners were advised to have it replaced. They were however, of the opinion that the plant was still serviceable, and the matter was left at that. Later, a fire occurred in one of these buildings, and when the firemen attempted to use the equipment in the building, the hose burst in numerous places, and the brigade’s own hose had to be laid on from the street, the first few minutes, so vital to the checking of a fire, thus being lost. The syndicate then lost no time in having the equipment in the other building made good. Within a very short time, a fire fiend started a fire in this second building, and by the use of the hose located close to the seat of the fire, the brigade was able to check a blaze that would have developed into a serious fire had it not been caught in its early stages. "We have never allowed a fire in the business section to get beyond the building of origin,” said Mr Wilson, "and it can be taken as a general rule that where such premises have been badly damaged, time has elapsed before we got the call. This brings out the fact that not enough of the ousiness establishments are equipped with automatic fire alarms, and if a fire starts during the night, as is very often the case, the fire has a good hold before we hear about it. If the business people are serious in their endeavour to prevent loss by fire, why do they not make more use of these alarms and so give the brigade a reasonable chance of getting to the scene in the early stages of the fire?” Emphasis is laid on the need for some measure of fire prevention by the fire losses in Auckland last year. Up to June of last year, the end of the Fire Board’s year, the Auckland Brigade received 305 calls, of which 192 were actual fires, and the actual loss for the year was £83,778, one fife alone accounting for £50,000. In the previous year the loss amounted to £39,935.