£25,000 DAMAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 78, 3 April 1939, Page 10

£25,000 DAMAGE.

SAWMILL BURNED.

WATER SUPPLY FAILED

BLAZE AT NATIONAL PARK.

OVER 100 MEN AFFECTED.

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

TAUMARUNUI, this day.

Fire broke out at the Egmont Box Company's sawmill at National Park, about 12 miles from the railway station, at seven o'clock yesterday morning and, after burning fiercely for several hours, destroyed the whole mil] and plant. The chimneys, boilers and heavy machinery are now all that remains.

The damage is estimated at £25,000. It is summed that the fire started near the boiler.

With the assistance of a large number of mill workers the stock and timber ill the yards were saved. The lire could be seen by travelling motorists for miles.

Seventy of the men previously employed at the mill will not be reemployed for at laet three months.

The water supply failed soon after the fire began. The ruins were still burning this morning.

The mill was built on most modern lines and had reached a cutting capacity of 30,000 ft daily, but the average daily output wae 25,000 ft. It was considered one of the most modern and up-to-date mills in the Dominion.

Seventy-five single men and 40 married men, exclusive of bushmen, were employed at the mill and lived in single and double housee near the timber yarde alongside the main highway. All the houses were lit by electricity generated by the mill plant and la*t night all were in darkness.

The mill was owned by a Taranaki syndicate of dairy farmers. The insurancee are not yet available.

The same company's box factory at the National Park railway station depended largely on the supply of timber from the mill and will be affected by the ftre.