FIRE AT DUNEDIN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 15, 28 October 1938, Page 6

FIRE AT DUNEDIN

manufacturing works burnt. flames sixty feet high. ESTIMATED LOSS OF £14.000. (Per Press Association.) DUNEDIN, This Day. The works of Thompson’s Crystal Products, Lttd., manufacturers ot honey, lollies, soft drink, essences, and hoot and floor polishes, situate near the wharves in Lower Rattray Street-, were destroyed by fire early this morning. The Brigade was called at 2.30, and when it reached the scene the flames, fed by fifty-gallon djrums of turpentine, were soaring sixty feet Tn the air. Five fire engines and 35 men were concentrated mainly on saving the adjoining buildings. The contents of Crystal Products’ Works consisted largely ot sugar, several hundred tons of which were stored, turpentine, and floor polish, and the fire among these inflammable products, fanned by a south-east wind, spread with appalling rapidity. The adjoining .buildings were the premises of the Harbour Board watersiders and the buildings of a skinexporting firm. The .heat ignited the bitumen roof of the skin firm, while solid, concrete walls were cracked from top to bottom, and hundreds of sheep skins were damaged by water. The machinery and contents of Crystal Products’ Works were totally destroyed. Only the walls of building remain standing. The estimated damage is £14,000. The insurances total £II,OOO, with the F.A.M.E. and Lloyd’s. The fire originated near the boiler.

Even- at that early hour some 300 spectators witnessed the conflagration.