FIRE PROTECTION

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 214, 29 November 1927, Page 18

FIRE PROTECTION

AVONDALE AND TAMAKI STATIONS AND EQUIPMENT TO COST £IO,OOO rpHE building and equipment of new fire stations at Avondale and at Tamaki will cost the Auckland Fire Board about £IO,OOO next year.

In the opinion of the board’s superintendent, Mr. W. L. Wilson, this expense will have to be met in the next 12 months, for Avondale has already joined the city and Tamaki-Orakei comes in on April 1. As soon as a district joins the city it automatically comes part of the responsibility of the Fire Board, the chairman of the board, Mr. J. J. Kingston explained to-day. Avondale, although still retaining its voluntary brigade was under the jurisdiction of Superintendent Wilson, and the board was considering a new site for a Are station in that district. When the new station was built the board would not take over, the present engine, but would have new equipment. Superintendent Wilson estimated that Avondale’s new station might be built in six or 12 months. The voluntary brigade would not necessarily go out of existence then; that depended on the brigadesmen themselves. “When a district joins the city we are expected to give it proper protection by means of the most modern equipment,” he said, ‘>nd the engine at Avondale does not meet that requirement. I estimate that the capital expenditure for the purchase of land, the building of the station, and the equipment will be £5,000 each for Avondale and for Tamaki.” He said that the Avondale Brigade was handling the calls in the district at present. There was no direct call to the Pitt Street station, but in the event of a big fire the city engines would turn out. The system was not very satisfactory. When Point Chevalier joined the city the district had no Are protection system and the station and equipment had cost £4,000. One permanent Areman was in charge of the station, which housed a Kissell 40 h.p. machine, and there were six auxiliaries who slept there at night. A similar system might be introduced at Avondale.