THIRD BLAZE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 151, 29 June 1939, Page 11

THIRD BLAZE.

LONDON OUTBREAKS.

£1,000,000 Damage Caused By

Conflagrations.

IRA. ACTIVITY SUSPECTED.

IndepeLdent Cable Service.

(Received 12.30 p.m.)

LONDON, June 28.

j Another big fire in the City danger zone occurred this afternoon in a five-storey warehouse in Upper Thames Street. The blaze spread with amazing rapidity and firemen were forced to concentrate on saving neighbouring buildings. ° The Barbican fire last night in three hours destroyed seven buildings and damaged eight others, mostly warehouses filled with inflammable materials. The whole of New Zealand Avenue was destroyed, only the skeletons of the buildings being left standing. The damage is estimated at £1,000,000. It is believed that no lives were lost, but three were injured in escaping. Firemen who had worked all night on the Barbican fire were called this morning to a chocolate factory at Islington, where an outbreak destroyed the upper floors. Three loud explosions drove residents near by from their homes. At first it was feared the fire was the result of a bomb outrage, but later it was believed to be due to a gas explosion. The "Daily Mail" suggests that arson by the Irish Republican Army was responsible for the Barbican fire.

I.R.A. SOLDIERS.

PENAL SERVITUDE TERMS."

Independent Cable Service. , (Received 9.30 a.m.) LONDON, June 28. John Joseph Keane, who declared that he is a soldier of the 1.R.A., refused to plead and was sentenced to ten years' penal servitude for possessing explosives. Joseph Malone, who refused to plead, was sentenced to five years' penal servitude for causing a tear-gas bomb explosion in Victoria Cinema.