FALSE FIRE ALARM.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 November 1924, Page 8

FALSE FIRE ALARM.

THE CULPRIT CAUGHT. FINE OF TEN POUNDS. IMPRISONMENT IN FUTUREOne of the rare cases in which it is possible for the authorities to lay prompt hands on a miscreant who gives a wilfully false alarm to a fire brigade occurred at New Plymouth last week, and the result was the imposition of a fine of £lO, in default one month’s imprisonment, on the “capture,” Arthur William Blanc, by Mr. A. M. Mowlem, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court yesterday. Mr. Mowlem said that in future he would send similar offenders to gaol without giving them the option of paying a fine. Blanc, who had admitted the offence to the police, did not appear in court to answer the charge. It was to the fleetness of foot of Constable Antill, comlbined with the powers of observation of the night stoker at the gasworks, that the capture of Blane was due. When the answer by the fire brigade at 2.1'5 one morning last week to a call received from the box near the Sash and Door Comipany’s factory in Gill Street revealed that the alarm was a false one, a search was made of the immediate vicinity for persons likely to have a knowledge of the , call. The gasworks stoker said he had seen two men running towards the railway yards a few minutes before. Con- ] stable Antill and Mr. “Dick” Inch, the night watchman, who was on the scene with him, thereupon divided forces with the object of an outflanking movement.

The move was successful. The few minutes start tlunt the men had obtained was quickly reduced by Constable Antill in gaining the railway yards, and a quick search through the rolling stock located Blane and a companion. Their description corresponded with that given to the searchers, and when taxed wah the offence Blane said he had brok ;.u the alarm but had not thought that a call would be given. He was taken to the police station, where he made a written statement admitting his guilt. In it he said he had been out for the evening and had had a few “spots.”

Senior-Sergeant H. McCrorie, who prosecuted yesterday, said that the change was laid under the Fire Brigades Act and that the penalty for the offence was a fine of £'so or a month’s imprisonment. The fire boards in all parts of the Dominion, he said, were complaining at the number of false alarms that were being given, and had suggested that the culprits, if caught, should be sent to gaol. The cost of turning out the brigade on the present occasion wa.j £5. The seriousness of the offence wes stressed by Mr. Mowlem in awarding the penalty. Such acts, he said, might very well place the fire brigade in the position of being unable to attend to a genuine call to a fire. He wanted to make it perfectly plain that in future if anyone came before him and was con- | victed. of such an offence he would not [give him the opportunity of paying a fine, but would send him to prison.