THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1882. FIRE EXTINCTION IN SYDENHAM.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2657, 12 October 1882, Page 2

THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1882. FIRE EXTINCTION IN SYDENHAM.

Thb Fire Prevention Committee of the Sydenham Borongh Council is, we believe, still in existence, because certain matters have, curiously enough, from time to time been referred to it, but the Committee certainly strikes ns as one of the most singular that could exist. It would puzzle an outsider to understand what are the functions of a Fire Prevention Committee, when there are no appliances for putting out fires in the Borough. Do they attend fires and report on the pictorial effects produced by the flames ? Or do they mainly exert themselves in cheering the Christchurch Fire Brigade when the latter come to the assistance of the residents of Sydenham ? Or do they confine themselves to sending in voluminous reports on the state of affairs that might exist if Sydenham did indeed possess some means of putting out its own fires ? If the latter is the case, it would remind one a good deal of the state of affairs that used to exist in days gone by in the navy, when any child of an illustrious individual could be nominated for a commission, and by the time he grew to a certain age ho found himself high up the ladder of promotion, with every chance of becoming an admiral at five-and-twenty. For the Committee, by the time there are fire extinction appliances to report on, will be high up among the most experienced Fire Prevention Committees. It will be able to date back its commission to the first years of the formation of the borough, and will plume itself on the fact that the early years of its official existence were a complete sinecure, spent in playing at the childlike game of “ make believe.’’

That the committee enjoy the game is very evident, and that the Borough Council at large are quite willing to join them in their juvenile sports is evident from what took place not so many years ago. The London, Liverpool, and Globe Insurance Company sent for the Council’s use a hand fire engine This ponderous instrument was carefully placed in a shed in the Council’s yard. Probably the Fire Prevention Committee used at intervals to visit the hand engine, explain to each other its mechanism, and report whether all was well with it or otherwise. The hand engine, however, had as easy a time of it as the Committee itself, and having, so to speak, eaten its head off in the Council yard for several years, it was returned by the Council to the Company, without having been, as far as we are aware, ever used. These visits to the hand engine were probably the only functions at all approaching to the practical that the Committee ever discharged. A historical painting of an interview would be a graceful present from the member for Sydenham to the Council in recognition of the enthusiastic reception he has received on his return after his unrecorded but gigantic efforts in Wellington. Of course the Council, in treating of the hand engine episode, may argue that it was of no nse becanse there was no water in the borough available for fire extinction purposes. We trust, however, they will not take this line, because a question at once arises as the reason why they formed a Fire Prevention Committee. If the Committee was in being at the time of the present being made, the London, Liverpool and Globe Insurance Company were possibly lured by its existence into the belief that the hand engine would be of nse. The Council, if it were to adopt this lino of argument, would only place itself on the horns of a dilemma.

Perchance, however, by this time the Fire Prevention Committee is getting tired of doing nothing, and, if so, wo can suggest to it a means of turning its dormant energies to a practical use. A chemical fire engine requires no water. Why, then, should not the borough buy one ? We know nothing for certain about this engine except from hearsay, because the one possessed by the City Brigade has never been brought into play. It has been trotted down to two or three fires, and trotted back again without being used, to the infinite disgust of people who were anxious to know something about its capabilities. But we presume it is a useful instrument, or the Brigade would not have purchased it. Such an engine could bo bought for between £4OO and £SOO, and for a few more hundreds a fire brigade could bo thoroughly equipped. Wo do not see how, otherwise, the Fire Prevention Committee can bo given any work to do. The river Heathcoto is too distant from the more populated parts of the Borough to bo of any practical use, and Jackson’s Creek has but little water in it—indeed, some of the residents on its banks have petitioned the Drainage Board to be allowed to fill it in. As to a general water supply, the Council does not appear to bo at all anxious to get one —at least, if it is to cost any money. As Councillor Thomson, suggestod not so l;ng ago, the Borough’s idea on the question is that a water supply for it might bo endured if it had

not to fee paid for. Neither dees tha Borough sosm to exert itself in the erection of ordinary tanks. It managed to get np a little enthusiasm about the erection of baths at the Sydenham school 'which might be utilised for fire extinction purposes, but possibly this was because it was proposed that tha Board of Educafion should pay half the cost. Moreover, if the hath was erected, the Fire Prevention Committee would of course have the privilege in swimming in it. So that viewing the question in its various aspects the proposal that the Borough should purchase a chemical fire engine seems the best way out of existing difficulties. If it answers—well and good. If it does not answer, the Fire Prevention Committee will at last have something to report on. The thunder and lightning document that they might issue on the subject might go far towards redeeming their character in the eyes of certain sceptics who at present hardly realise the raison d'etre of the Committee.