Decisions to abate hazards must be based more on statistical evidence of need in the public interest generally than on professional judgment alone.
81. In the economic sense, damage by fire has had practically no effect on the gross national product. There are a variety of reasons for this enviable state of affairs, the chief ones however, are that (a) the majority of buildings and plant used exclusively for production purposes are relatively new, and (b) a considerable percentage of production (in aggregate) is still spread over thousands upon thousands of small work- shops. Whilst the latter category of industry remains responsible for the majority of serious fires and loss of life, losses in production are negligible. So far as the planned factories are concerned, as these become older, and equipment and installations installed therein decrease in efficiency, one can expect major fires in industry to develop as indeed they have in other industrial countries, unless there is increasing vigilance on the part of managements and Government agencies generally and the Fire Service in particular.
INVESTIGATION OF FIRES
82. The Bureau (together with selected officers from operational units) is responsible for the investigations of all fires. Contrary to common belief, this is not necessarily the duty of the Police Force unless a felony is believed to have been committed. Standards of investigation into fires and other occurrences are such that it is now rare for the cause or most probable cause not to be determined. The total amount of time spent on investigations of fires during the year under review amounted to 5,600 hours.
83. The alertness of officers of the Burcau carrying out routine inspec- tions during the year resulted on no fewer than four occasions in the detection (and abolition) of hazards which would in time have resulted in fires and loss of life of considerable magnitude.
PUBLICITY
84. The Department owes much to the assistance and advice of the Director of Information Services and his staff. Experience over the last few years clearly indicates that there are two definitive areas of publicity, one which follows the conventional pattern, namely, by the medium of the press, radio, posters and brochures, and the second, direct contact
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