£50,000 FIRE IN AUCKLAND

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28936, 2 July 1959, Page 17

£50,000 FIRE IN AUCKLAND

Firemen’s Courage Praised (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, July 1. Twenty firemen stuck to their posts amid showers of flaming debris as a £50,000 blaze gutted the boat-building factory of Charles- Bailey and Son, Ltd., in Auckland last night. Three pleasure launches, valued together at more than £ 12,000, are a total loss.

Five hundred spectators gasped as the front wall of the corru-gated-iron building—wreathed in flames—bulged dangerously with firemen directly below. The Chief Fire Officer (Mr G. Drummond) today paid tribute to the courage of his men “in hot and dangerous conditions.” Three fire-fighters at the back of the building dashed to safety as red-hot sheets of corrugated-iron crashed to the ground. Then they returned immediately to their posts. Sparks and debris fell continually round the men as they stood inside the front entrance directing the hoses. One man was posted in front of that bulging wall ready to call the others to safety. Another officer circled the building, watching to see that sparks did hot drift towards petrol tanks 100 yards away. But the light breeze fanned the sparks away from the danger area. The tanker Kongstal, berthed four blocks away at Wynyard wharf, stopped discharging petrol m « precaution.