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212. We appreciate and stress that the Means of Egress Code prepared by the Standards Institute will be of the greatest value in its application to existing buildings for the purpose of making them safe, but at the same time we are convinced that the Egress Code will need supplementary provisions such as those of the Fire Prevention By-law now being prepared by the New Zealand Standards Institute. It will not be possible to apply all the provisions of the fire-prevention by-law to existing buildings, but at the same time there are some which must receive consideration, and allowance must be made for discretion in their application to existing buildings. We refer to such matters as the installation of sprinkler systems ; the control and limiting of fire areas ; the control of the nature of the occupancy, having regard to the class of construction of the building ; the use of standpipes and fire hoses ; the use of fire-retardant materials on otherwise combustible substances; the protection of exposures ; the control of smoking ; and safeguards against carelessness. 213. We are compelled to discuss generally some important principles of fireprevention, the objects of which are—(a) Providing for the safe egress of people in a building : (b) Preventing or reducing the number of outbreaks of fire : (c) Confining the magnitude and reducing the spread of a fire when it breaks out. It is of paramount importance that every endeavour be made to reduce the number of outbreaks of fire, and in this regard the responsibilities have to be shared by all parties interested, and not only by the authorities controlling buildings and various supply services, such as electricity. A large share of the responsibility to adopt adequate safeguards must devolve upon building owners and occupiers, and also upon individual persons, for it appears from records that a substantial proportion of fires is attributable to carelessness. This important factor, inter alia, makes it necessary to introduce minimum standards for the structural elements of a building as well as providing fire-fighting forces. Tt makes it necessary to ensure that large buildings are subdivided by walls and floors of adequate fire-resistance. It has to take into account the structural design of the load-carrying elements of the building in order that in the event of fire they can carry the consequent strain. It necessitates the provision of means whereby firemen can obtain reasonable access to attack fires. The subject of exposure of one part of a building to another, or one whole building to another, has to be controlled so as to reduce the risk of fire spreading. There are other factors that have already been mentioned. 214. Apart from the paramount question of proper means of egress with fire-alarms and necessary evacuation drill, the balance to be struck between passive defence measures and active fire-fighting is one of the broad economics. Unfortunately, there does not appear to be any detailed statistical data on the subject, and regulations in existence seem to be based largely upon judgment as a result of experience. 215. We are of the opinion, however, that there is ample scope and great need for increasing passive defence measures in New Zealand, and that there is no need to set up greatly increased fire-fighting forces. What is required with regard to the latter is an overhaul of the fire-brigade-control system and methods of training so as to promote the highest possible efficiency in actual fire-fighting operations. This question we deal with later. 216. We are impressed by the fact that there seems to have been an absence of a rational approach to the fire-precautions problem on the technical side. On this matter a committee of the British Building Research Board of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Great Britain, has given a useful lead.

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