11
Thursday, January 8, 1976
PUBLIC URGED TO HELD FIRE PRECAUTION WARNINGS
The Fire Services Department today urged members of the public to
be more careful with fires; especially in the countryside.
A spokesman for the department said that because of the prolonged
spell of very dry weather, the average daily number of fires for the first seven
days of this month totalled 44, compared with 21 for the same period last
month.
"During tais period," he added, "there were 306 fires of which 183
were hill fires. It is most disappointing to see that such a large percentage
of fires occurred in the countryside in spite of repeated warnings to the public
to be careful."
The spokesman attributed the increase largely to carelessness and
failure to take precautions in view of the fire danger brought about by the
present dry spell. Burning of weeds or other waste materials by villagers on
open ground was another main cause of hill fires.
"If all available firemen and engines are deployed to fight hill fires
which normally take hours to put out, there might not be enough people to call on
should fires occur at the same time in multi-storey buildings," he said.
He urged smokers to be particularly careful when discarding cigarette
ends and matches and appealed to visitors to the rural areas this weekend to do
all they could to prevent causing fires.
The spokesman
'Fu