BIG FIRE LOSS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 1, 2 January 1945, Page 6

BIG FIRE LOSS

MILITARY STORES

IN SHOW BUILDING

P.A. PALMERSTON N., Monday. Military material valued at over £1,000,000, according to semi-official estimates, was destroyed by fire shortly after midnight on Sunday. The event also ushered in a disastrous new year for the Manawatu Agricultural and Pastoral Association, in whose spacious halls the material had been stored ever since the threat of a Japanese invasion. The military authorities haye had all the showground buildings crammed with equipment, supplying from there the needs of camps situated in the southern end of the North Island, with the exception of Wellington. Everything needed to equip a soldier and a camp; with the exception of ammunition and food, was there, and it was in the heart of this immense storehouse that a small fire started about 11.30 p.m. on Sunday night and spread with amazing rapidity until five of the exceedingly large halls, which were practically under one roof, were a • raging inferno beyond control. Belated Call to Brigade A rather belated call gave the brigade no chance of doing very much except save a row of six dwellings which face Waldegrave Street, but back on to the showgrounds, and which were dangerously close to the fire It was, indeed, fortunate that there was practically a dead calm otherwise all these houses would have gone up in smoke as well. I he. brigade also managed to save the administration offices of the Agricultural and Pastoral Association, which face Cuba Street, but only after tons of water had been poured into and over them. It is stated that at 11.30 p.m. a small fire was discovered in a military cookhouse in the building and extinguished. Within the next quarter of an hour, however, this building suddenly burst into a mass of flames and the fire commenced to work toward Waldegrave Street into No. 3 hall. The brigade received the first intimation of the fir at 12.12 a.m. by messager and .hree motor engines responded. The superintendent, Mr. P W. Milverton, reports that when he arrived at the scene the fire had a good hold. Water leads were run out from Cuba and Waldegrave Streets and from inside the showgrounds, where large mains had been laid in years gone by to meet lire needs. The brigade made an effort to confine the outbreak to No. 3 hall, but it just rolled along undev the roof among highly-inflammable material inside until it enveloped both Nos. 1 and 2 haUs and then spread to the larger produce and entertainment halls. There were ten or eleven hoses operating and one had to be abai> coned early when a roof started to collapse. The firemen dropped everything and ran. Water was still required as late as midday to-day to extinguish smouldering embers. But that time only halls 4 and 5 remained intact. Loss Estimated at £1,000,000 The remainder arid the greater part of the association's industrial show buildings were a heap of twisted, blackened iron, under which lay the remains of the £1,000,000 worth of military material. Only those who had had an opportunity of seeing what the halls contained before the fire have any idea of the vast quantity of goods stored there. There were boots, tunics, greatcoats, underwear, shovels and other things by the thousands. There was more hardware than is stocked by all the merchants in Palmerston North put together. The ordinary housewife would have been amazed at the quantity of crockery, cutlery and household li.ien. Sheets and blankets were also numbered in thousands. There were tons of nails, wire and rope, to name just a few items. Rifles and machine-guns stored in Nos. 4 and 5 halls escaped, although much water was thrown in there. Cause of Explosions It was fortunate that the fire did not happen some little time ago when the halls also housed a very large quantity of ammunition and explosive. * Explosions which were heard during the fire came from paint and oil drums, there being more paint in stock at the time than is owned by all the paint merchants ia Palmerston. North put together. Turps and linseed oil helped thefire along, as did also much other highly-inflammable material, which was stacked ceiling high. About a dozen lorries parked in adjacent buildings were removed to safety. The fire, Palmerston North's most spectacular blaze of all times, attracted a huge crowd of onlookers and was visible fo. , many miles. Being holiday time, there was only a handful of men camped on the showgrounds. The buildings were insured, but owing to the holidays the amounts are not available.