FIRE THREATENS MOANA SAWMILL

Press, Volume C, Issue 29467, 20 March 1961, Page 16

FIRE THREATENS MOANA SAWMILL

Damage Confined By Half-Inch Hose

(From Our Own Reporter) GREYMOUTH. March 19. Only the use of a small but powerful hose saved the lakeside sawmill at Moana from destruction by fire in the early hours of Friday morning.

Residents of the tiny country settlement on Lake Brunner were still commenting at the week-end on the miraculous save of the Canterbury-owned mill. The property of P. G. Morrison and Company, the mill received comparatively light damage. The blaze destroyed the friction house and a small section of the mill proper.

Had it not been for the one and a half-inch highpressure hose and the strenuous efforts of railwaymen and local residents, hastily summoned to the outbreak, the damage would have been much more than a few hundred pounds. The fire was first noticed by Mrs E. G. Velenski. who lives about 100 yards away from the mill. Flames were then leaping about 40ft into the air She hastily roused her family and sent out a general alarm. Some 20 firefighters were quickly on the scene, but by that time the flames had a good hold on the friction house, which houses the 60 h.n. motor for hauling the logs into the mill, and the men concentrated their efforts on saving the mill proper. Fortunately, the electrical pumping equipment which carries water from the lake was at the end of the mill where the flames had not reached, and with the pressure available the fire was prevented from snreading to the main part of the mill which was only charred to a minor extent. The sawmill once before in recent years has been threatened with destruction by fire. On that occasion a sawdust nile burst into flames, but was quelled before much damage could be done.