Serious View Taken Of Fire Losses

Chronicle (Levin), 21 October 1949, Page 7

Serious View Taken Of Fire Losses

WELLINGTON, October 20. Tlie total fire wastage for 1047, amounting to £1,799,800 was an aii time record for New Zealand, 1928 beiiig next with £1,636,119, stated the annuai report of the Inspector of Fire Brigades, Mr K. Girling Butcher, presentea to Parliament today. The report gave the insured fire loss for 1947, the'latest year for which national figures have been prepared, as £1,599,822 or £764,392 over 1946, bnt it included x500,000 from the Rongotai wooi fire of 1946 and a proportion of Ballantyne's fire loss. The total fire wastage was estimated in the usual way by adding an eiglith to the insured loss.- National loss figures were based on returns by coinpanies of fire loss payments actually made during the year. In some cases where salvage was involved or a fire occurred late in the year, payment might be made in the following or even a iater year, the report expiained. Attention was drawn to the remarkable siniilarity b'etween the fire experience of the peak loss period 1926-31 and the years iinmediately following the Second World War. Fires in the former period totalled 7231 and the loss £3,058,399. In five of these years there were more than 1000 fires annually ranging from 1044 to 1351. In the 1943-49 penoa there were 9661 fires and in five of the years there were more than 1000 fires ranging from 1391 to 1973, the fire loss being £3,494,439. Referring to the two periods, the report stated there was the same sudden increase in the number of fires within two years' and concurrently a heavy increase in the loss figures. It seemed not unlikely that the reason for both inereases was economic. The view was widely held that the most important economic influence on loss by fire wa* that arising from the fact that in times of falling prices, it sometimes paid to have a fire in insured property. Thi3 might result, apart from the possibilities of incendiarism, in lesser care with respect to fire on the part of owners and those responsible for the control ot property. It was possible, however, to make the deduction from the statistics that there was an even more important fire loss factor arising from economic conditions such as unsettlement due to war or a general state of prosperitv, which should be given some consideration. The present rate of loss was undoubtedly exeessive- and if not checked, would become a factor seriousl.v atfecting the conntry's economv. Carelessness of the rank and file employee in trade and industry was the cause oi most fires as well as of conflagrations, which bposted the fire loss returns. it thev were not to learn the hard way, some effort must be made to bring home to both emplover and employee, the seriousness of the present position.