FOUR SHIPS ON FIRE

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24814, 2 March 1946, Page 7

FOUR SHIPS ON FIRE

PORT OF LIVERPOOL PASSENGERS ESCAPE IN NIGHT ATTIRE (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rcc. 1.10 a.m.) LONDON March 1. Passengers, who were mostly Swedes on their way to Gothenburg from Bombay, and members of the crew were taken off- the Swedish liner Drottingholm when. the ship caught fire in the Liverpool docks early this morning. Many of the passengers

were in night attire. Some women were overcome by fumes from burning cotton bales in the after hojd. Firemen had to use breathing apparatus. Spontaneous combustion is believed to have caused, the fire, which broke out shortly after midnight. Three hours later firemen were still pouring water into the snip at the rate of 2000 gallons a minute, but had the fire under control.

However, while the firemen were fighting this outbreak, fire occurred on the cargo vessel Sambak in the Alexandra dock about half a mile away, but was extinguished after about 40 minutes. Two other ships have been involved jn fires in the last 12 hours. They are the Tudor Star, from which a large quantity of rum was saved, and the coastal vessel Ayrshire. The former was in the Alexandra dock and the latter in the Trafalgar dock.