The purpose of this Bill is to require all sanitary authorities to make reasonable provision for fire-fighting services in their districts. The Bill also lays down a form of procedure regarding the inspection of buildings, and the service of notices on the proprietors of dangerous buildings, so as to ensure the maximum protection for life and property in the event of fire. At present rural sanitary authorities have no power to provide fire brigades, that power being restricted to county boroughs and the towns to which the Towns Improvement Act, 1854, applies. Under the provisions of the Bill, the sanitary authority may themselves provide a fire brigade with the necessary machinery and equipment, or they may make an arrangement with an adjoining fire brigade authority or other body for the use of the fire brigade service maintained by that body. It may be found that greater efficiency, combined with economy, can be secured in many cases if the brigades to be established have a wide area of operation, and my Department, in the administration of the Bill, will encourage any necessary steps towards reasonable unification of local control.
Even in towns where fire brigades already exist, the present law in regard to the inspection and control of buildings is inadequate, and Sections 7 and 8 are among the most important provisions of the present Bill. These sections give the local authority power to inspect all buildings for the purpose of ascertaining whether they would constitute an exceptional risk to life or property in the event of fire. If the sanitary authority, as a result of the inspection, are of opinion that a building comes within the definition of a "potentially dangerous" building, whether by reason of the numbers of persons resorting to it, the absence of means of extinguishing fires or of escape, the material of which the building is constructed, or the nature of the articles stored in it, the local authority will have power to serve a notice on the proprietor requiring him to cease to use the building for the purpose which renders it dangerous, or to carry out specified alterations. The proprietor has a right of appeal to the District Court against such a notice.
If this Bill becomes law the obligation to provide fire-fighting services will rest on the sanitary authority in each district. Town commissioners are not sanitary authorities, and the Bill contains provision accordingly for the transfer to the sanitary authority of fire brigades, apparatus, etc., at present maintained by town commissioners. As all expenses incurred in connection with the administration of the powers conferred by this Bill will be chargeable on the whole sanitary district, including, in the case of county health districts, the areas of towns under town commissioners, the responsibilities of the sanitary authorities would overlap with the present powers of town commissioners if the latter were left unaltered.
In the event of a sanitary authority failing to make reasonable provision for fire-fighting services after the Bill comes into force in its district, complaint may be made of such default to the Minister, who is empowered to have the complaint inquired into and, if found proven, to require the sanitary authority to comply with its responsibilities in the matter. This procedure will constitute the only remedy against the local authority. No action will lie against them in connection with damage to persons or property as a result of fire.
A day will be appointed for bringing the Bill into force in each sanitary district. In districts where fire brigades are already functioning it may be possible to bring it into force immediately; in other districts it will be necessary to allow a reasonable time for the local authority to consider whether they should provide their own service or enter into an agreement with an adjoining local authority, and in the latter event, to conclude the necessary agreement.