Fire Cost Auckland £66,000 This Year

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 239, 29 December 1927, Page 1

Fire Cost Auckland £66,000 This Year

TWO BIG OUTBREAKS LACK OF WATER SUPPLIES Loss by fire in the district controlled by the Auckland Fire Board has totalled more than £66,000 during 1927. Reviewing the “fire year,” Superintendent W. L. Wilson, chief of the city fire brigades, supplied interesting details of calls received tp date from the area under his supervision. Of 386 alarms received, 200 were actual fires, 31 were “chimney flares,” 38 were outbreaks in patches pf gorse and rubbish dumps, 23 came from suburban districts not within the central brigade’s area, and 94 were false alarms. The superintendent remarked on the number of actual fires directly traceable to the fusing of electric wires, of which there w.ere. 41. This figure comprised just over 20 per cent, of the total outbreaks, which were the result qf defects in motor-car and house wiring systems. Several calls were prompted by the fusing of street mains beneatji the f ootpatji. ... Two fires of outstanding magnitude occurred during the year. The Salvation Army Women’s Industrial Home, when 25 inmates had'a narrow escape, was destroyed during the winter. The total inadequacy of the water supply was the subject of strong comment by the since then the three-inch mains had been replaced by pipes of double the calibre.. - By far the most destructive fire occurred early this month, when a large portion of Messrs. Henderson and Pollard’s joinery mill was gutted. The loss was. assessed at over £50,000. Here again the paucity of the water supply was a serious handicap to the firemen, who consequently could do nothing to save the factory. Loss, of life was recorded on two occasions. On July 24 an aged man was burned to death in a whare in Graham Street, and on September 25 an occupant of a house in Howe Street was suffocated by smoke from an incipient fire. ENLARGEMENT OF MAINS Much had been done during the year in the replacement of small mains throughout the district , by pipes of greater capacity, said Superintendent Wilson. At the Auckland Hospital the four-inch main had been removed and a six-inch pipe substituted, thereby doubling the volume of water available. Mr. Wilson stressed' the value of firedrill in schools and other large institutions where the danger of loss of life by fire was ever-present. The Salvation Army Children’s Home 'and the Queen Victoria School for Maori Girls were instances of schools where firedrill was regarded as a wise and necessary precaution. A further endeavour would be made in 1928 to introduce fire drill into the schools of the city and to advance the education of children in fire prevention. Mr. -Wilson referred to the lack of fire escapes at many boarding houses, and expressed the view that more stringent. legislation would probably have .the desired effect. EXTENDING THE BRIGADES An extensive building programme has been mapped out for the new year as a result of the amalgamation with the city of several local bodies. The old volunteer fire station at Avondale is to be rebuilt, permanently staffed a,nd supplied with a modern engine. At Tamaki a new station is to be erected and the Remuera station will be doubled .in size.