FIRE INSTRUCTION

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 850, 19 December 1929, Page 6

FIRE INSTRUCTION

MAf BE COMPULSORY IN SCHOOLS FIRE BRIGADES’ EFFORT A suggestion that the teaching of fire prevention methods, and fire drills, should be incorporated in the primary schools’ syllabus as a compulsory subject, was approved by the Auckland Primary School Committees’ Association last evening. A remit sent forward by the Newton School Committee read as follows: —“That the association endorse wholeheartedly the efforts of the United Fire Brigades’ Association of New Zealand to have incorporated in the primary school syllabus as a compulsory subject the teaching of fire prevention methods and fire drill.” Mr. B. Carlson (Newton) held that ignorance of the proper methods of tire prevention and the treatment of injuries had caused great pain and trouble that could have been avoided had the children known by instruction what to do. The speaker referred to wrong ideas that were prevalent among the uninstructed. There was, for instance, the largely-held idea that water was most effective to extinguish fij;es. Water, of course, was useless where there was a petrol fire. Members discussed at length the organisation of children, and the instilling into them of the knowledge of what to do in a fire panic, not so much in the event of a fire at school, but so that they would be prepared for any calamity that might occur in other places where people were clustered together. It was also mentioned that many school doors opened inward, whereas there was a regulation that public halls should have doors opening outward. This regulation did not apply to schools. Another member recalled the death of a young girl whose dress had caught on fire. When the flahies caught her, she had rup, which was the worst thing she could have done. Had she known that the proper course to follow was to throw herself on the ground and roll over and over, her life would probably have been saved.

The principle of the remit was approved, and it was decided to send the suggestion on to the Education Board.