FOREST FIRE-FIGHTING EQUIPMENT
rpHE State Forestry Service has, in recent weeks, been preparing for the approaching dry season, when the fire danger in forest areas is most acute. Protective equipment has been overhauled and new fire fighting devices have been brought into service. An acquisition to the Tapanui district of the department will be this fire engine, which has been built on to a chassis of a “ quad,” a vehicle well known in the army. Brought from Wellington by the Katui, the machine is shown being unloaded at Victoria Wharf yesterday morning. Because of the need to conserve petrol and the vehicle’s heavy consumption of fuel, it will be taken south by rail. When the machine reaches Tapanui, the department will have three of such machines there—one for each of the major forests in the area. In a telephone conversation with the Daily Times yesterday, the Conservator of Forests, Mr J. F. Field,
who is in Invercargill, gave details of the new vehicle and the purposes to which it would be put. Possessing a four-wheel drive, the “ quad ” fire engine can travel in places inaccessible to the ordinary lorry-trailer type. It is capable of carrying 400 gallons of water and is equipped with short length hoses with “fog” nozzles, each of which can be operated by one man as the engine is driven along the road. The machine is also fitted with suction and force pumps and with lengths of 2iin. hose connected to 5-Bin. nozzles. The Conservator mentioned that several units of another modern fire fighting device, a small portable pump, had recently been obtained. These pumps had ljin. hoses and could be carried by two men through the forest. They would be of the greatest use, Mr Field said, in the indigenous forests, which were not roaded to the same extent as the exotic plantations.
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Otago Daily Times, Issue 26640, 10 December 1947, Page 6
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307FOREST FIRE-FIGHTING EQUIPMENT Otago Daily Times, Issue 26640, 10 December 1947, Page 6
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