FIRE WASTE IN NEW ZEALAND.

Shannon News, 27 March 1923, Page 3

FIRE WASTE IN NEW ZEALAND.

METHODS OF PREVENTION

ADDRESS BY INSPECTOR HUGO

Inspector Hugo, in his opening remarks at the Fire Brigades conference at Dunedin, said he intended to speak to them about fire prevention. In his last annual report he. (had stated that at a conservative estimate the fire waste in New Zealand had amounted to £900,000, or 14/9 per head of the population. The actual insurance losses for that year amounted to £750,310—a heavier loss by something over £200,000 than that for the previous worst year, 1917. Information which he had since, received would show that the fire waste actually .amounted to £1,000,000. As to this huge 'loss] which the speaker contended vvas preventible to a very large extent, he asked why it was allowed to go on from year to year. The public did not seem to realise that loss by fire, was u national loss, and that although a property might be insured, its destruction by fire simply meant that the loss was transferred from one pocket to another. The point to be remembered was that any property destroyed by fire was irrevocably gone —it simply went up in smoke. A wei. known authority' had stated that 90 per cent of the fires were due to causes that were easily preventible, the principal of these being carelessness. A specially prepared table showed that 20 per cent of the fires were caused by carelessly throwing down lighted matches—generally wax matches—and by cigarette butts, and that 10 per cent originated in rubbish that had been allowed to accumulate. To-day fire prevention work was looked upon as being of quite as much importance as fire extinction, and it formed an integral part of fire brigade education . and ■ administration. There was no doubt whatever that a large percentage of the fires which occurred in New Zealand were due to carelessness, and he wished to impress upon his hearers that once they had joined a fire brigade it became the duty of each one of them individually, as well as the duty of the brigade collectively, to do what they could to reduce the excessive number of fires that occurred in the Dominion.

The speaker said he wished them clearly to understand that he was not detracting from the very valuable work which the volunteer brigades were doing. For the information of those who were not working under Fire Boards he might state that when making his periodical visits of inspection he proceeded with the chief officer of the local brigade to the scene of any fire which had taken place recently, and there dismissed the cause of it, and how it was, or might have been, worked, etc. On two occasions, with the same brigade, he had seen work which was quite equal in its effectiveness} to any he 'had seen performed by any other brigade, professional or otherwise. How were they to-go about the state of affairs which I led to the excessive lire loss? They should begin at the root by teaching fire prevention in the schools. This .was being regularly carried out in America, where lectures were delivered regularly in the schools by fire brigade' officers. In some states they had a fire prevention week. In Canada, October 9 was set aside as ''Fire Prevention Day" by proclamation T>y the Governor-General, and why should we not have a similar clay or week in New Zealand? They already had a lead in that direction in the form of a Health Week.