WASTAGE BY FIRE

Marlborough Express, Volume LX, Issue 229, 28 September 1926, Page 6

WASTAGE BY FIRE

LOSSES IN THE DOMINION. FIGURES FOR PAST YEAR. Returns of fires for the year onded .Tune 30 iasfc, given in the annual report on the fire brigades of the Dominion, show an inerease in the number of calls under all heading exC'Opt chimney fires. The number of calls received, throughout the 46 fire districts for 1925-26 totalled 1785, as against 1628 for 1924-25, an inerease of 157. The 1785 calls are made up under the different headings as follows: Fires, 898 (828;, inerease. 70; chimney fhos, 231. (238), decrease 7; bush and rubbish fires, 230 (254), inerease 66; false alarms, 276 (257), inerease 19; out-of-district fires, 60 (51), increaiso 9

• Of the 898 fires 42 are reported as being duo to inoendiarism, 11 as having occuiTed an uuoccupied premiscs aud 282 as of unknown origin. Tlie principal cause® as shown by the returns are electricity 75 (of tliat number 15 are due to domestic irons being lefb with the current switched on;, sparks from copper fires and fire-places 65, smoidng and cigarette butts, 51. rnotors baakliriiig and short circuits, etc., 48, lighted matches thrown down, eto. 38. The tal.al loss ihroughouu the fire districts for the 12 months ended June 30, 1926, amounted to £352,638, as against £306,114 for the previousi 12 months. an inerease ot' £46,524. The four lieaviest 1 istrict losses occurred in Dunedin (£59,631), Christchurch (£39,913), Auckland (£26,613), and Greymouth (£25.227). According to the census of April last the population of New Zealand totals 1,379,487 and. of that uum-

her 480,365 or 34,8 per ce'nt., are inhabitants of the fire districts. The insured fire loss throughout the whole of the Dominion for the 12 months ended December 31, 1925, amounted to £840.735 and tlie proportionate loss in the 40 fire districts for the oorresponding 12 mcntbs was £212 796, or 8s 10s per . capita, while tlie insured loss for Ihe rosUof the Dominion (i.e., loss iu fire districts deducted) amounted to £627,939 or 14s per capita. The fire waste throughout the Dominion for the year 1925 is estimated at £1,050,919, or 15s 3d per head of population.