46
67
evidence as an "uncontrollable fire risk", a term which has only come
into use since the war. If the godown had been partitioned either ver-
tically or horizontically into completely separate compartments, the
Fire Brigade would have had a much better chance of saving at least
part of the building and its contents. The plans of all structures
which are in any way out of the ordinary are checked for fire prevention
and extinction purposes by the Chief Officer of the Fire Brigade or his
Deputy before being passed by the Building Authority. After the pas-
sage of the Building Ordinance, 1935, we have no doubt that the plans
for a building such as the Wing On Godown No. 2, in view of the pur-
poses to which it was to be put, would not have been passed unless it
had been divided into sealed-off units of a limited cubic capacity.
The Buildings Ordinance confers no powers on the Fire Brigade or the Building Authority to require structures erected before the passage of
the Ordinance to be adapted to conform with the Ordinance, so that the
Fire Brigade was not in a position to demand the sub-division of the
godown. If a license had been sought to store dangerous goods in this
godown, it would have been another matter, as the Chief Officer has power
under the Dangerous Goods Ordinance to make the grant of a license con-
ditional on structural alterations. We considered whether these powers
should be extended to all godowns if our recommendations for registration
are accepted, but in view of the heavy expenditure that might be entailed
and the technical considerations involved, we were unable to reach a
conclusion on this point. We regard this matter as of importance and
recommend that a Committee of qualified persons be appointed to con-
sider it.
Publicity for Storage Regulations:
88.
It was brought out very clearly during the inquiry that there is
a very great ignorance of the dangerous goods regulations, not so much
among the more important godown companies or older established houses,
but among lesser godown owners and importers and exporters. Elsewhere
we have suggested possible reasons for this. We consider that part of
the blame for this lack of knowledge must be laid at the door of the
Fire Brigade, who do not seem to have made any efforts to make the re-