GEYSER IN STREET

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

GEYSER IN STREET

HOLIDAY DIVERSION

CABLE CATCHES ALIGHT

A geyser 'gushed in a city street to-day. It was a bright red geyser and it burned fiercely for some five minutes or so to the accompaniment of thick black clouds of smoke that billowed up above the buildings in Fort Street. ■ At noon the city /was largely deserted. Streets sweltered in a hot sun. A few holiday-makers made for trams and buses, but ' otherwise things were very quiet. Then thr geyser gushed, and in a couple c» minutes the usual crowd hau gathered. Where the people came from was not clear, but it was certainly clear that the geyser provided an unexpected diversion in an otherwise dull period. ' . Meantime the city fire brigades appeared on the scene, surveyed proceedings briefly, and, with the exception of a machine from the central station, returned to their respective headquarters. Apparently the geyser was "no great shakes" as a fire. Merely another case of a cable catcn"They can't do anything until the 'power board' arrives*" commented an onlooker. So the firemen stood by while the vivid blaze exhausted itself, fanned by an occasional breeze. Then the men from the power board arrived in a truck and with pick and shovel sought the source of the trouble. The crowd lingered, then gradually dwindled away, leaving the workers to their holiday toil. . ... , ~ Fire headquarters provided the information that the call came from what is designated a "box area, this requiring the attendance of four machines. No action could tie taken until the power was turned off, when "a few puffs" only were necessary to extinguish the burning asphalt. ■ ■ , - .;■ ; -