New Fire Brigade Station.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIX, Issue II, 12 July 1902, Page 88

New Fire Brigade Station.

Although the ceremony of opening the splendid new quarters which this ’ Auckland City Council has provided for the Fire Brigade in Pitt-street-. does not take place for some the builders have got sufficiently forward with the work for the brigade to take practical possession. The arrangements are of an elaborate and up-to-date character. The engine room is extensive and conveniently placed, communicating with the street by three sets of folding doors.'. The flooring is composed of Vai de Travers, a material of the nature of nsplialt, and was laid by the same firm as is now engaged in paving Queen-street, namely, the Neuchatel Asphalte Company? Four iron pillars and girders support the ceiling. At the back of the engine room are six horse boxes, each door of which is separately supplied with a magneto arrangement, which enables an operator in the watch room to throw them all open instantaneously. The watch room and battery room is the first room on the right hand side on entering. This is the room where alarms of fire will be received; where the operator by a movement of the hand will fling open the stable doors, set the electric bells tinkling in every bedroom in the building, and set the whole staff astir. Should the firemen be playing billiards or in the social hall upstairs they will be able instantly to shoot down into the engine room by means of the two sliding poles which lead through the ceiling, while the city in general will be aroused by the ringing of the six-inch bell hanging outside—the signal for traffic to keep clear. The firm alarm system, the installing of which is now in hand, will enable alarms to be given from eighty different parts of the city and suburbs by the breaking of the glass face and the pressing of the button. The rooms alongside the watch room, and also at the opposite side of the building are bedrooms, with the exception of the room opposite the watch room, which is to be Superintendent Wolley’s office. The yard at the rear, with concrete floor and exit to the street, is well supplied with laundries, carpenter’s and blacksmith’s shop, lavatories, “coal houses, etc. On the ground floor, also, there are kitchen and dining room, pantries, and other rooms fortheuseof of the men. The upstairs portions are reached by two outside and two inside staircases. The apartments over the watch room and adjoining rooms are the foreman’s quarters, and include three bedrooms, dining-room, kitchen, etc. A similar suite at the opposite side of the building form the realm of the superintendent. A feature of the yard not yet built will be a look-out tower, which will be used for the additional purpose of hose drying. The builder is Mr George Baildon.