FIRE DAMAGES WAREHOUSES

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26745, 31 May 1952, Page 6

FIRE DAMAGES WAREHOUSES

Lichfield Street Outbreak NO ESTIMATE YET OF LOSS Four units from the Central Fire ‘ Brigade were called to a fire in • building at 81 Lichfield street at 939 p.m. yesterday. The buildihg is occuplied by Arthur Ellis and Company, Ltd., wholesale manufacturers and warehousemen; Emu Wools, Ltd., wool merchants; M. Brandt and Son, Ltd, manufacturers’ representatives; R. J. Robbs, Ltd, manufacturers' agents; F. T. Thorpy, Ltd, textile importers and agents; A. W. Hale and Son, Pirrit Brothers, Ltd, and H. Petit, Ltd. The brigade was called after a pedestrian had noticed smoke pouring from the second storey of the building. When the engines arrived the fire had. a good hold in the second and top floors. The firemen forced an entry, and three leads of hose were taken into the building. Thick smoke made . it difficult to see what was happening, .. and a policeman who accompanied the firemen had to leave them. The walls and floor of the first floor were burning, but the fire here wai quickly extinguished. Much of the. contents were badly damaged, and big . wooden crates lay in disorder on the floor. The fire in the second and top storeys was brought under control with, greater difficulty. The floors of both . storeys were inches deep in water. The rear of the top floor was badly charred, and the contents, linen and wool, were saturated. Water seeped through the floor of the first storey into the storeroom of J. R. McKenzie, Ltd., at the rear of the building, but firemen removed cartons and boxes to another room. The fire did not enter the storeroom of J. R. McKenzie, Ltd.', but a door between the , two buildings was charred. No estimate of the damage had been made late last evening by the occu-: pants of the building.