HEAVY FIRE LOSS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 70, 23 March 1935, Page 11

HEAVY FIRE LOSS.

TIMBER MILL BLAZE. TAUMARUNUI OUTBREAK. HUNDRED MEN WORKLESS. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) TAUMARUNUI, this day. A blaze which was seen for miles around last night destroyed the Taringamotu Totara Sawmill Company's mill at Taringamotu, near Taumarunui. The planing mill, the breaking-down mill and other buildings were totally destroyed, but the office was save:!.

The mill was one of the most up-to-date in the district, and the damage runs into thousands of pounds. In addition 100 men will be rendered idle by the blaze.

The fire started in the planing shed about 8 o'clock, and within half an hour had swept from one end of the mill to the other on a froiitage of over 100 yards. The lire-fighting appliances were burnt in the planing shed, where they were housed, before they could be got out, and thus no water was available to fight the flames.

A number of mill houses and thousands of feet of stacked timber which surrounded the mill were saved from destruction by a favourable easterly breeze, and a firebreak round the blazing mill.

The mill blazed fiercely until midnight. The insurances are not at present available. Mr. Arthur Andrews, an employee of the company, was the first on the scene, and an unsuccessful attempt was made to sound the whistle in the planing shed. By the time he had reached the main mill to sound the whistle there the flames had spread to that locality, and his effort to raise the alarm failed. By the time other workmen arrived all tlie fire-fighting appliances had been destroyed, and they had to stand by and watch the firo. destroy the mill. The cause of the fire is unknown, but it is presumed that sparks flying from the mill engine among shavings started it.

The mill had just started working full time after a long spell of idleness.