OE My ae SP OE poy Sele ed . FIRE PREVENTION WEEK TO START OCT.9 __| @byp hg '|BURT ALLEGES: "SITUATION EXPLOSIVE" 1|GM Understaffed | ee ne ee UAW Chief Says Some departments in General|must work longer than before; Albert Taylor, president of Motors of Canada here are ser-jin order to keep the rest of the}/Local 222 of the UAW, said as iously understaffed since thejshops going," he added. "Wejfar as he was concerned the October lay-off, George Burt,|hope it is only a short time be-jfinal lay-off figure was now Canadian Director of the United|fore the in-balances can be/3,300. "And that is a conserva- oe Workers Union, said yes-jironed out," a eas 6% terday, e a a oped the "The understafting,"" he told|"ORMERS IDLE sat {tition would be able to get to- The Oshawa Times in an inter-| ,any workers were' att in Sone' with top corporation of- view, "is leading to overwork.|1 rs 4 12 hour: days putting iM /ficials towards the end of next An explosive situation has been] «sure the said, "they like wee! Kk. caused wf General Motors." Heltne pig pay-packets. But they this eel bac a yt Pon continued: don't like seeing fellow workers|tant and it has to be fixed YOU COULD BE ON THE RECEIVING END «+ Fire Fighter Larry Graham 90 PC Of Fires Today Held As Non-accidental Ea By CHRIS DENNETT of The Times Staff Fire fighting has come @ long way since the era of the leather bucket and the horse-drawn steam engine. These days, cities, towns and villaegs across Canada budget millions every year to maintain the constant watch over their fire-foolish citizens. Fires don't just happen -- 90 per cent of them are caused. Every year the whole ex- pensive operation runs at an appalling loss -- fire loss, mil- lions of dollars of it. Tragic- ally, too, thousands of lives are lost. This is the major reason for National Fire Prevention Week which runs this year from October 9 to 15. YEAR-ROUND The week, as one fire fighter put it, is not the only time of the year when fire authorities concentrate on fire prevention. "We are doing this sort of thing 52 weeks of the year," said deputy chief Ernie Stacey of the Oshawa Fire Department. 'Fortunately though, we are allowed this one week of the year when we can make nse of nress. radio and tele- vision publicity to really ham- mer home the "fire prevention message."' Looking after the public is not an easy task. The feeling is always that it couldn't happen to me. Over and over again the fire department run across people who have thousands of dollars worth of personal property and not a cent's worth of insurance to cover it. "Usually we run across these people when it is too late," said deputy chief Stacey. "The apartment block fire on Simcoe Street North earli- er in the year was like that. A whole bunch of people homeless and hardiy any of them had insurance for their personal effects. 'It is so silly really. For some strange reason people seem to think that insurance is expensive. It isn't. 'They should check with an insur- ance agent and they would find out. $ "Oshawa, thanks to its fire department, has one of the lowest fire insurance rates I know of. People should take more advantage of ht, espe- cially apartment dwellers. "It is not our job to sell insurance; but we like to mention it." INSPECTIONS Since the beginning of Sep- tember the fire department has been on a house to house fire prevention tour. "We knock on the door and spection," said Mr. Stacey. "We go over the house and make a list of things that need correcting. "We are in our fifth year of this house to house inspect- ing. We reckon to have in- spected 1,500 homes by the end of this month." The most frequent fire risk the fire department has found in private homes is over- fusing. "The fuses are too large for the system," said Mr. Stacey. 'When the system is overloaded the fuse, instead of breaking, just gets hotter and hotter. 'Eventually we have a fire on our hands." BAD YEAR There is no denying that 1966 has been a bad year in the city for fire damage. By the end of the year the department expects to top the $700,000 figure, the greatest total since 1963. Mostly to blame are three major fires which occurred at the beginning of the year. Worst of them all was the January blaze which wiped out the King Street United Church. Two apartment block blazes quickly followed. In all three blazes damage ran into manv thousands of dollars it looks bad," "But per capita, our fire loss figure is going down and down. Your have to remember that the SES THEY STRIKE BLOWS FOR PREVENTION TOO «.<¢ Fire Fighter Vern Johnston day. "In comparison our per cap- ita fire loss gets lower every year." Keeping pace with the growth of the city is one of the fire department's biggest headaches. Next year they hope to be able to open their new east end fire station. '"This," said Mr. Stacey, "'will help to im- prove our east end coverage." SNORKEL LADDER New equipment too, is high on the priority list. By the end of this month the department should take of its 90 foot snorkel ladder. For the first time the fire department will be able to reach by ladder the top floor of the Oshawa General Hos- pital. "We will be able to get to the top of almost everything in the city except some of these new apartment build- ings," said Mr. Stacey. Pre-planning plays a big part in fire prevention. For example, if ever a major fire was to break out in the Oshawa General Hospi- tal a well practiced system would instantly go into ac- tion. The Fire Department stud- ied the hospital problem thor- oughly. "We like to think," said Mr. Stacey, "that if there was ever a fire at the hospital we could move patients out in a "It was the overwork that/out of a job. caused this walk-out of 149 men the other day. "What I'm afraid is that there will be more walk-outs if the situation is not controlled quickly. "We discussed the situation thoroughly today and we have decided to take it straight to the GM top management. "We are documenting cases and we want to see GM take action. What we are after is some kind of system where these disputes can he settled quickly and on the job." GM STATEMENT A spokesman for GM here told The Oshawa Times today the company was hopeful it will only be a short time before present "in-balances" are iron- ed out. He was commenting on George Burt's statement and said: "in-balances" always oc- cur at start-up time'. The spokesman added that the situation is exaggerated this year by two things, as follows: 1, The delay from the rail- way strike resulted in late ma- terials arriving in Oshawa. 2. There has been a larger period of shortage materials AVOID WALKOUTS "T just can't understand Gen- eral Motors' thinking in this matter. They are paying out time-and-a-half on overtime and really pushing the workers. "If they hired back more men they could cut the time-and-a- half and do the job cheaper and quicker. "TI fail to see the logic of it. All I know is that the situation is getting very explosive. "That is why we are worried. "General Motors has told us over and over again that they want disputes settled on the line. This is the way we want to see it too, "We don't like taking com- plaints to arbitration. It takes too long and we never achieve anything. "These matters must be settled quickly, Otherwise it leads to trouble. "We don't want to see any- more walk-outs. We have a good record here in Oshawa, one of the best in the Canadian automotive industry. We want to keep it that way: MEN RESTLESS i "But the men are restless, quickly." Baldwin Elected Henry Baldwin, chairman of the Oshawa Public Utilities Commission, was elected presi- dent of the Eastern Ontario Municipal Electric Association at.a two-day meeting of the as- sociation in Ottawa. Ontario is looking to nuclear power "'for a major part" of future needs, George E. Gather- cole, chairman of the Ontario Hydro said Friday at the meet- ing. "We will expand in this area as rapidly as technology and the Canadian capacity to manu- facture such units will allow," he told the annual meeting of the association. Mr. Gathercole 'said 1,200,000 kilowatts of nuclear - electric power already has been com- mitted in the Douglas Point and Pickering stations being built in a joint program with Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. this year as compared with|they are young and they are|Options have been taken for @ others. still hurt. over the lay-off." SHELVES SHOULD NOT BE CLUTTERED - «+ Inspector Checks Service Station further 1,000,000 kilowatts. DEBRIS DANGEROUS ... Fires Are Caused We apparently have the ask if we can make the in- city is getting bigger by the minimum of time." 7 FIPE PREVENTION WEED OCT 9% & OC 154 WORST BLAZE OF THE YEAR AT KING STREET UNITED CHURCS «+e Damage In January Fire Estimated at $400,000 FIRE DRILLS HELD AT SCHOOLS, HOSPITALS ++» Mock Fire At Oshawa Post Office