FILMS ON FIRE.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 17985, 31 January 1924, Page 13

FILMS ON FIRE.

FIRM LOSES £50,000. Motion pictnro fllcsfl vara-d ai £so,out> went up in flames in premises in Brisbane occupied by the .Fox Film Corporation of Australasia, litniited. Thero TR"aa not a, p?nriy of inauranco on the films which vrtzo destroyed, and in addition to this loss tho metropolitan and country businoa3 of the JJrrsbanc biunch ui tho company will E6 sitfor many months. 'l'h-j cause of Lhu outbreak i 3 a mystery. 'llls turns wci'.' stored in a brick vault a.t tuo rear ot the conii>ariy'3 premised, v.iiich, aro lockcJ at ti o'c:ot'.iv every night. Tho oniy opening u a ventilator at tho top of the MiUlt. \\ hen Mr Hammond, an employes of tho company, locked tko door of tuc vault on the cvcuinif of tho outbreak thoro were three hundred Kuna stored inside tho walls. Each film contained about 20UU ieet, eo thoro vexo over COO,OOO feet of valuablo film m tho '■ •>uit at tho tirno of tbo outbreak. Short!;.' after 6 o'clock a jet of fiamo eiiob !'iirjire-Xi of feet into tho air, and Ibo flames, v.'hL-h continued to iasuc ironi tho building, W'„re -isiljle tor many tcjjes. 't'Ue Jil'itropoiitaa i'irc Brigado headquar-'c.-i arc t7:tuatod only about a hundred yarrds from tho scene of tho outbreak. Tho brigade \vo.n qmokly on tho scone, and <xxtinUUiahod tho flames in a few mitoutcfl. Adjacent to tho vault wero placed Covesral boxes of iilni3, \rhich were intended to bo consigned to Thursday Island. They vexo tj b" despatched by tho steamer Eiifltera, '"it (he carter had failed to arrive that, nftcrnoon, and tho films consequently wero taJ<ea to the wharf. All thceo ilmc i-cro a-lM destroyed.