GAS HELD NOT CAUSE OF FIRE

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25447, 19 March 1948, Page 8

GAS HELD NOT CAUSE OF FIRE

Reasons why coal gas could not have been the cause of Ballantyne’s fire were given by Eric Frederic eer to the Christchurch Gas, Coal and Coke Co. Ltd. The basement in which the fire was alleged to have begun and which housed a meter with the through-put of 400 cubic feet an hour, was not ventilated from the front, he said. It was the infallible practice of the Ballantyne organisation to turn oft each meter at night. Had there been any gas escape or irregularity it would have been noticed by the employee who turned the service on every morning, as the smell of coal gas was particularly pungent. The lack of ventilation in the cellar would have aided detection of a gas leak. Men were working in the cellar before the fire.

and they could not have failed to detect a leak. If the leak were detected, the service could be isolated and cut off by an isolating cock. “Coal gas is not self igniting.” Mr Gorman said.' “There were no gas appliances in the cellar. Naked lights were prohibited and thus, even if a leak occurred, it could not have caused fire.” Five live services led into Eallantyne’s from the gas mains in Colombo and Cashel streets, he said. To his knowledge, the gas service was ih good

and sound order and condition before the fire. The last inspection of appliances and fittings was made on September 10, 1947, after which no further requests for attention were received. The fire brigade telephoned and reported the fire at 4 o’clock and gas meters in the threatened block were cut off by 4.35. At 11 p.m., Mr A. Smith, the qjght-call man, was shown a flame burning through a hole in the floor boards about six feet back from the window line by Deputy-Superin-tendent Barnes, who said: “That’s your •gas burning. Turn it off.” of the flame was not that of coal gas and, further, its volume—two feet in diameter and four feet long—exceeded that which could be supplied by the gas service. The flame went out then and did not recur.

Teste of the volume of gas from two services closest tc the location of the fire outbreak showed that 3600 cubic feet an hour would pass only when the pipe outlet was free of restriction; the meter connexions would not melt until the temperature was above 327 deg. C. It was most doubtful if the connexions would have melted in the time available before the explosion. The volume of gas discharged would be infinitesimal compared with the volume of hydrocarbon vapours emitted from the fire itself.