TRUCK DESTROYED BY FIRE

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27875, 25 January 1956, Page 12

TRUCK DESTROYED BY FIRE

STRAW BURSTS INTO

FLAMES

Straw bales in a truck and trailer travelling along Pound road, Islington, suddenly burst into flames about 2 p.m. yesterday. The driver and owner of the truck, Mr L. M. Denton, immediately turned the vehicle around into the wind and made a determined effort to throw oft the burning bales. However, the fire had too strong a hold, and Mr Denton was driven back by the heat. One unit from the Central Fire Brigade answered a call, but when it arrived it found that the fire had been extinguished by the Paparua County Council’s fire tender and the trailer pump from the Islington Freezing Works. Mr Denton said yesterday that al he was driving he smelt smoke and. almost at the same time, saw the flames. A few seconds later the straw on the truck was almost completely ablaze.

The fire spread to a gorse hedge running beside the road, and travelled for' some distance along it. "Fortunately there was a paddock of potatoei on the other side of the fence otherwise the fire might have spread much further,” said Mr Denton. The cause of the fire is unknown. The truck and trailer were so badly burnt that they are a complete writeoff. The Christchurch Fire Brigade received three calls vesterday to a fij* at the Christchurch Drainage Boards sewerage farm, which has been smouldering since the week-end. The fir* alarm was given at 12.22 p.m., and subsequently the brigade answered calls at 2.19 p.m. and 6.19 p.m. No damage was done. Foam equioment was used to extinguish a fire in a 50-eallon tar boiler at the City Abattoirs. Racecourse road. Sockbum, at 10.33 a.m. The tar overheated and caught fire, but the blaze was confined to the boiler. One engine from the Central Fire Station and tenders from the Royal New Zealand Air Force Station. Wigram. and the Paparua County Council, attended the fire. At 2.14 p.m.. one unit from the Central brigade extinguished a grass fire in Bromley road. No damage wai