Fire-fighting Organization
Page 35
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TIOUBTS have recently been thrown not only upon the adequacy of the fire-fighting It is unquestionably the case that there still are many districts where suitable equipment is either non-existent or has to be obi ained from such a distance as to involve grave risk to life and property, because the fire danger is one in which speed in taking the neceSsary measures to combat it 'is, perhaps, the most essential requirement. • The flourishing municipality' can afford appliances which are of the latest pattern and equal to coping with the most extensive outbreaks, but there are others less fortunately situated, and yet having fire risks which may be just as great.
It must not be thought that we are casting any reflection Mpon the fire chiefs concerned. They and their brigades constitute a fine body of men, unequalled elsewhere in the world, but the present system of control by local government does not always appear to be fully satisfactory. It is often 'bound by local con siderations where a wider outlook is necessary. Much of the equipment now in use is out of date and comparatively inefficient. A few additions and replacements are being made, but more attention will very soon have to be paid to this matter.
There are comparatively few British manufacturers who specialize in the provision of fire-fighting equipment, but we know that others are considering the question of entering, this market, which should, in the near future, -become one of increasing value.
A difficulty, however, exists in connection with the turntable fire-escape, of which, we believe, only one British product is available, and the Ilse of this is restricted to a particular make of chassis. There is a call for all-British apparatus, and the authorities concerned do not wish to be so limited in this important direction. Tentative efforts have already been made to find a selution of this problem.
Credit must be given to those makers who have developed small but particularly efficient pumps which, ' whilst being comparatively Inexpensive and even capable of being towed behind an ordinary car, can deliver highly effective quantities of water. Such pumps are of great value in sparsely populated areas; and may often usefully be employed as auxiliaries in more congested districts.