FIRE DAMAGES SCHOOL

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29269, 29 July 1960, Page 12

FIRE DAMAGES SCHOOL

Outbreak At Barrytown (From Our Own Reporter) GREYMOUTH, July 28. Fire destroyed portion of the Barrytown school, 20 miles north of Greymouth, about 4 p.m. today. A classroom in the old school building, which accommodates infant and standard pupils, was gutted, and valuable books, arts and crafts and other equipment were lost. A toolshed and garage situated at the side of the building were also destroyed. They contained equipment including a new motor-mower and expensive garden tools. \ Paintwork on the toilet block, about eight yards distant from the outbreak, was blistered and several windows in the new school block, 20 yards away, were praken by the heat. Only prompt aetjon by nearby residents, who used buckets of water taken from the school swimming baths, preveptkd the fire spreading to the nety \block before the arrival ot the\Runanga Fire Briga'de, which brought the outbreak under control. The headmaster of the school, Mr I. M. Alexander, could suggest no cause for the outbreak. He said the coke stove used to heat the classrooms had not been in use since 10.30 a.m. One possible theory was that the fire could have been caused by birds' nests in the chimney.