QUIET YEAR FOR FIRES

Taranaki Daily News, 8 January 1932, Page 9

QUIET YEAR FOR FIRES

NEW 'PLYMOUTH POSITION

NO REALLY SERIOUS OUTBREAKS ONLY ONE FALSE ALARM GIVEN. I The quietest year for fires for. a considerable period, was how Superintendent A. Boon, of the New Plymouth Fire Brigade, described 1931 to a to porter yesterday. There had not been a great number of calls, and no really serious outbreaks had occurred. 1 The custodian of the central fire station (Mr. F. M. Doughty) stated that the full brigade had.’attended 17 fires as the result of a total of 49 notifications. The remaining 32 had been dealt with by the permanent station staff and included calls to three motorcars, five chimneys, 20 lupin and rubbish fires, two sheds, one machine motor and one false alarm. The most serious outbreak occurred at about 10 o’clock on the evening of March 16 in the premises of McLeod and Slade, printers, Devon Street. The building contained much inflammable material, while the walls were lined with scrim and paper. The fire had a strong hold but the brigade made a good “seve”’ before much damage was done. On May 21 a house at Weetown belonging to a Mr. Cowling was destroyed before the brigade reached the scene. On August 7 an outbreak at Fitzroy partially destroyed a cottage. A most satisfactory feature, commented Mr. Doughty, was the absence of false alarms. Only one hod been received, and that had not been given with malicious intent. In that respect New Plymouth compared more than favourably with other centres. Improvements at the station included the installation of the new duplex alarm system which involved a changeover from cells to batteries. This was a step favourable from the points of view of efficiency, cheapness and cleanliness. Two reducing nozzles had been installed on hoses which, providing the hoses were sound, were invaluable in regulating the jet of water or in cutting off the flow in an instant. The strength of the brigade at present is about 20. Eight of these men are resident at the station at night.