A UNIFORM BY-LAW NECESSARY

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 48, 19 May 1927, Page 1

A UNIFORM BY-LAW NECESSARY

The fire chief said that a “rather anomalous state of affairs” had been in existence. While the police had the right to inspect the escapes in public houses and the fire board looked after places of public amusement, the private hotels, boarding houses and residences in the city had not been placed under strict regulations.An amendment to the Municipal Corporations Act in 1920 had stated that the municipal councils “may” appoint an inspector of fire escapes. The result was that responsibility for the provision of adequate escapes was not placed on anyone. At that time the chief urged the necessity of a “shall” to replace the “may.” Definite authority to act is given the fire boards in the amendment to the Fire Brigades Act which came into force on January 1. Under Section 60 (K) a board may nfake by-laws “requiring the owners of buildings to provide such fire escapes as may be deemed necessary.” Mr. Wilson thinks that the best thing would be to have a uniform by-law for the whole of New Zealand and accordingly he will urge this measure at the conference of fire boards to be held in Wellington shortly. ROPES INADEQUATE “How would an invalid or an inactive woman get down a rope or even a rope ladder” said the chief when a SUN reporter asked him what he thought of the provision of ropes outsHe the windows of some houses. He said that any rope appliance was decidedly inadequate. A rope ladder was a difficult thing to use even when

“HOARDING house! in Auckland might easily become b bonfires and there might be similar happenings to the recent one in Napier,” said the superintendent of the Auckland Fire Brigade, Mr. W. L. Wilson, to-day. "But at last,” he added, “we have the mechanism by which the provision of proper fire-escapes may be enforced.”

the escapee was an active young man. f The platform type of escape with ladders at not one but both ends was j really the only safe one. The danger of inside rooms which had no direct j egress to escapes was also stressed by \ Mr. Wilson. To expect a boarder, who, perhaps, had arrived only that night, to find his way across a passage and through another room in a fire i was ridiculous. •* “There is bound to be a good deal of discussion at the boards’ conference about what is required,” said the chief. “The decision of just what power will be given to the fire chiefs will require careful though:. There is also the question of the storage of crates, straw, hay, packing and other inflammable stuff in buildings. At present there are regulations about the keeping of this stuff in back yards, where j the danger is probably less.”