CO129-614-1 Commission of Inquiry into fire at West Point- report 26-5-1949 - 22-12-1949 — Page 64

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this is a step in the right direction, but wo realise that the Insurance

Association will be confronted with serious difficulties. We consider

that the reintroduction of a system of rebate for safe storage might

meet the desire of the Insurance Companies to preserve the higher tariff

for premises under Chinese management and at the same time to quote low

rates for premises which are of more elaborate construction and less

subject to fire risk. Such a system might also offer an inducement to

godown proprietors to adapt existing promises or construct new premises

with improved anti-fire precautions.

Powers of Inspection of the Fire Brigade:

82.

The Fire Brigade or the Police are authorised to search any pre-

mises which they have "reasonable grounds" for suspecting may contain

something liable to seizure, which is the penalty for improper storage.

It is clear that the Fire Brigade's powers of inspection are therefore

somewhat limited, as it is difficult to define "reasonable grounds",

though apparently an anonymous letter is regarded as such. It might be

difficult to give the Fire Brigade unlimited powers of inspection by

removing the "reasonable grounds" phrase, as this would allow them un-

reasonable powers of interfering with the individual. A solution re-

commended by the Insurance Companies and which would be welcomed by

the Chief Officer would be that all godown storage whether for dangerous

goods or for ordinary goods should be registered annually and subject

to inspection at any time by authorised inspectors. We do not think

that such a system of registration would impose any undue hardship on

godown-proprietors, (we understand that the Fire Insurance Association

has recently requested all godown proprietors to register their godowns

voluntarily with the Association), nor do we think that it would be ad-

ministratively impracticable. Such a system of registration with con-

comitant powers of inspection from time to time would certainly give

the Chief Officer much more power to ensure the enforcement of the stor-

age regulations, which in our opinion are an essential part of the fire

prevention service. The number of large godowns in the Colony is not

very great, but we were unable to ascertain the number of smaller stor-

age places which could be classified as godowns or warehouses. It should