OFFICIAL STORY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 78, 2 April 1928, Page 10

OFFICIAL STORY.

FIRE BRIGADE'S BIG TASK. DANGER OP FAIXDCG WALLS. STORAGE BEYOND CAPACITY. This disastrous fire has occurred on ; first day of the new fire year." said i Superintendent W. W. Wilson, of the Auckland Fire Board. '"In all previous years, ' he added, "we started on the first of July, but this year a change was made as at the first of April. I have not the slightest idea how Ion? the fire will burn. I do not think anybody can say. At T o'clock this morning we knocked off pumping water on the wharves. Our object up to then was to keep the walls cnol and stop them from crumpling in. We found at 7 o'clock that there was no further use in doing this. All the walls were badlv cracked and bent.

J \ou ask me what we can do with this j class of fire?' said the superintendent. J -We can practically nothing with it. It is a. ca.-e or allowing it to burn itself out._ Of course, it is possible with large fomite plants to check such an outbreak. but I doubt, even with fomite plants, that a fire of such proportions I present one could be stopped with anything. When the brigade arrived the building was ablaze from end to end. The dangers of tnese stores are realised by the authorities, and as far as I know watchmen are employed all the time. »»hen I got to the 3cene myself five engines were at work, three from the Central station, one from the Western station, and one from Parnell. I sent the two latter back immediately, as I realised that they could be of no use. We also had our two turbine pumps. One of these has a capacity of 800 gallons per minute, and the other of 3.50 per minute. With these we had leads from the harbour on to the walls of the building, but :t was not necessary to work either turbine at more than half power. All our plants stood up to the work magnificently, and kept going until ! knocked them off at 7 o'clock.

•In regard to the walls of the buildings," added the superintendent, "I do not know what would have happened if they had fallen inwards. That was our anxiety. We should probably have had many more explosions then, as the bricks railing into the interior would have still further confined the gases and caused more explosions. I was also afraid of them falling outwards, and that has their tendency. If this had happened the fire would have spread to surrounding property, and it would Lave Ijeen impossible, owing to the heat, for U3 to get near."

are in a very bad state now, said Mr. Wilson, "but there. is not so much danger, as <he content, of the building are pretty well down to tne level of the transver-e walls.

Building Chock-a-block.

"The building was absolutely chock-a-•dock; it was packed to the very roof, even up above the rafters, and there was not an inch of -pace left. This made it v(*ry difficult for the briga !* to get any water in on top so that it would flow down upon the ca-es btlow and keep them cool, as was done in the Beacn Road fire. On that occasion we were able to save 5000 cases out of a total of 7000. In the present fire ther» is approximately 30,000 cases, and thousands of 40-gallon drums. It is hard to say what we learn from this fire. • iecause the lesson was learnt before. v> e must not exceed the capacity, because it does not jrive us any chance. '"I think that any likelihood of further violent explosion may be regarded 3? negligible, as the building is too open. The wind happened to be southerly but if it had been in the opposite direction there might have been great danger to the Atlantic Lnion Oil Companv next door, where a large quantity of drums of petrol were stored. It "was lucky, in fact, that the wind was where it was, or the consequences might have been much more ®eriotis." In conclusion. Mr. Wil=on said that fhev had difficulty with the crowd, who would congregate around the fire engines. This tended to hamper the work of the men. "It is always one of our troubles," he added.