ALARM OF FIRE

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 152, 23 March 1939, Page 3

ALARM OF FIRE

Social Security Building Even among the brlgadesmen. uh 4 usual interest attached to an alarm of fire received by the Wellington Central Brigade at 2.21 a.m. yesterday from the new Social Security building on Aotea Quay. The “flying squad” jumped to it with perhaps a little more than their customary alertness, and in a few seconds were flashing along Jervois and Waterloo Quay, a straight run, clear of all traffic. On arrival at the Waterloo-Aotea Quay junction they found the building to be fully illuminated, and the work of completing the interior fittings proceeding' at the usual pace. There was no fire. The building is fitted with an automatic thermostatic fire alarm system with direct communication to the Central Fire Station. This system calls for a series of thermostatic valves placed along the ceilings of the various rooms. When the safety fuse in any of these valves is melted by heat the alarm rings and automatically is communicated to the fire brigade station. ■What happened was that one of the workmen accidentally knocked one of the valves off, and so set the alarm ringing, but before the brigade could be advised that the alarm was an accidental one coming under the term of “justifiably false,” three engines were on the spot.