LIGHT FIRE LOSS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 January 1943, Page 4

LIGHT FIRE LOSS

OUTBREAKS IN MASTERTON DURING PAST YEAR E.P.S. AND E.F.S. UNITS ACTIVE. WORK DURING EARTHQUAKE PERIOD. No major fires occurred in Masterton in 1942. The fire losses during the year was light, being only £5ll,- stated the Superintendent of the Masterton Fire Brigade, Mr T. B. Clark, in reviewing the year’s operations. Mr Clark said that light fire loss was due to the care taken by members of the business and residential communities. The response by property owners to appeals made in the Press to keep grass cut in empty sections had been very good, despite a shortage of labour to get the work carried out. It was to be hoped, said Mr Clark, that this co-operation would be continued. The inauguration of the Emergency Fire Service and E.P.S. fire units had created a great deal of extra work for the officers and men of the brigade throughout the year in the training of personnel and in teaching them to handle the appliances. Members had shown a great deal of enthusiasm in their work which had made for efficient training. The serious earthquakes on. June 24 and subsequently had seen the fire service functioning one hundred per cent. The brigade and members of the E.F.S. and the E.P.S. fire units had stood by for duty for some hours after the earthquakes. A few minutes after the first big shake four girl members of the E.P.S. had reported for duty and were on duty in the watch room for four days. The girls were on duty while the men were working on demolition work on the fire station building, which was badly damaged. For three months the engines were dispersed and accommodated in nearby garages until the station was temporarily rebuilt. The loss of a storey to the building meant the loss of training and recreational facilities. There was a prospect of a new building being erected in the future. The statistics for 1942 were:—Calls, 47- property fires attended to, 18; chimney fires, 7; hedge, gorse and rubbish fires, 8; justifiable false alarms, 11; malicious false alarms, 3. The estimated value of property on which fires occurred was £.22,460 and the msurance totalled £14,070. . Mr Clark expressed appreciation ot the co-operation he had received from various departments of the Borough Council, the local Police and the .Press.

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