DANGER OF FIRE

Southland Times, Issue 22157, 27 October 1933, Page 8

DANGER OF FIRE

LINSEED OIL AND SAWDUST. SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION. “The fire in Wingate’s warehouse on October 19 was caused by the spontaneous combustion of linseed oil and sawdust,” said Mr W. L. Wilson, superintendent of the Auckland Fire Brigade, at a meeting of the Metropolitan Fire Board. “It is surprising that the danger of mixing linseed oil with a foreign body is not more generally known,” he added. After the fire, said the superintendent, he made a thorough inspection of the damaged portion of the building. His suspicions were aroused by six wooden barrels, full of rubbish, in the basement. They contained a mixture of sawdust and linseed oil, and he was informed by an employee that when linseed oil was spilled on the floor, sawdust was strewn about to xnop it up. It ought to be more widely known that such a mixture could automatically ignite in from two to 24 hours, especially if slight pressure was applied. The chairman, Mr J. J. Kingston: I thought everyone knew that.

He described how a friend of his had once thrown the contents of a tin of linseed oil on to a lawn after using the oil to clean rimu wood. In 10 minutes the Oil was ablaze.

Mr R. J. Mills: Ignorance and stupidity cause every fire. If we educate the people properly we would not need a fire brigade. Mr Kingston said the danger of using linseed oil on cotton waste and other substances needed strongly emphasizing. It was more than probable that many fires in country stores were caused through such carelessness. Mr A. G. Lunn suggested that the board might undertake a campaign of instruction.

The chairman replied that when the board had tried to help in instructing the public on previous occasions very little notice was taken of it. An attempt had been made to teach the people by means of films how to avoid fires, and some time ago 20,000 printed notices were issued in the city, giving the telephone numbers of the brigades and advising householders and employees of business firms to acquaint themselves with the situation of the nearest fire alarms. A year afterwards there was scarcely one notice to be found. Nearly all had been lost or destroyed. “Not long ago I was sitting at table with 10 other persons,” said Mr Kingston, “and I asked each of them if he knew the telephone number of the fire station, or the position of the nearest fire alarm. Not a single person could answer me correctly.”