FIRE-WATCH SERVICE

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 22, 21 October 1942, Page 4

FIRE-WATCH SERVICE

No Relaxation For Holidays

ROSTERS FOR CHRISTMAS

“It must be clearly understood that in no circumstances is fire-watching to be discontinued on Labour Day or any other holiday period, excepting in the event of an express direction being transmitted by fire-watching headquarters from higher authority,” said the Wellington Fire Protection Organizer Mr. V. E. Hampson-Tindale, yesterday.- “No such instructions have been received.” - * Labour Day watchers might arrange between their building organizers and themselves to split the day and so gain the benefit of a half-day, but the dropping of watching on that daj, because it was a holiday, was defimtely not permissible, he said. Unless higher authority decreed that fire-watching "’V? to be dropped the same ruling would apply to the whole of the Christmas-New Year period, but if the problem was approached in the right spirit of co-operation between building organizers, employers, and watchers, duty periods could be arranged to suit the convenience of watchers as far as possible. Building organizers were recommended, therefore, to draw up rosters for ths Christmas holidays well in advance so that rearrangements that were justified in individual cases could be discussed and agreed upon. He suggested that those who protested so volubly against fire-watching on holidays should go back over past Axis surprises and attacks and note how consistently they fell on Sundays and on public holidays. Pearl Harbour was blasted by the Japanese on a Sunday morning; the worst of all the London blitzes fell on the Christ-mas-New Year weekend, December 29, 1940, when Germany guessed, correctly, that watchers would not watch but .would make a holiday of it. “In the fire-watching service now holidays are not recognized,”-he said. Water Supply. Mr. Tindale said that a substantial supply of four and five-gallon drums was available, and organizers in buildings which were not sufficiently equipped should advise him at once of the numbers they required.’ While many buildings were fairly well equipped with static water others were very inadequately equipped. It bad been repeatedly stressed by British authorities that reliance must not be placed on main supplies during attack and the only alternative was to have plentiful supplies in drums and buckets. Building organizers are again directed that water in buckets and drums is to be changed weekly. This ensures, said the organizer, that watchers become familiar with the positions of the water containers and also guards against accumulation of cigarette butte, cellophane, and other rubbish which would put a pump out of action; in some buildings inspected water containers were found to be no better than cigarette dumps, and some of thejn were less than half full as n result of evaporation and lack of attention extending over months. Better facilities were required in many buildings for the calling of watchers from the street; inspectors had been held up for a considerable 'time through being unable to attract the notice of watchers, who, though on the premises, could not be reached by knocking or by inadequate bell or signal systems.