WASTAGE BY FIRE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 105, 6 May 1933, Page 13 (Supplement)

WASTAGE BY FIRE.

Now Zealand has little to be proud of in one world’s record it holds. The statistics of thc Dominion’s annual fire losses submitted at the recent conference of the New Zealand Fire Brigades’ Association are still so high in comparison with those of other countries that tho position merits the most serious consideration. Fires that destroy buildings and property may be roughly divided into two classes—those that occur accidentally and those that are wilfully started. As Superintendent Boon, superintendent of the New Plymouth brigade, pointed out, convictions for arson are very- rare, owing to the extreme difficulty of securing sufficiently strong evidence, but it can bo safely assumed that a definite proportion of fires have a deliberate origin. To some extent the responsibility for this lies with the insurance companies, which in thc past have been too prone, in their eager scramble for premiums, to issue insurances to an amount un warranted by the value of the pro I perty covered, and without making sufficient inquiries. Latterly the insurance companies have tightened up considerably, and nowadays it is not so easy to make a little surreptitious arson a payable proposition. Of the second class of fires—accidental ones—while thc majority can be traced to carelessness it is likely that many are caused by electrical appliances, notably the electric iron which has not been switched <»ff. Captain Hugo, ex inspector of fire brigades, put his finger on thc solution when he said that knowledge of lire prevention is of more importance than that of actual fire extinction. Thc insurance companies have led tho way by making wilful incendiarism less attractive than it used to be; it remains for the authorities to complete the process by a properly considered and organised system of fire prevention education, commencing with children still at school.—Taranaki Daily News,