Heavy Loss When Fire Destroys Railways Mill

Press, Volume C, Issue 29699, 18 December 1961, Page 14

Heavy Loss When Fire Destroys Railways Mill

(N£. Press Association) ROTORUA, December 17. The New Zealand Railways sawmill at Mamaku was completely destroyed by. fire at 3 p.m. on Saturday. The damage will run into many thousands of pounds. Driven by a southerly wind of gale force, the fire, which had started in the boiler room, swept through the big mill building in less than half an hour, leaving only the tall chimney and a few pieces of machinery standing in the ruins.

The mill was a modern one. cutting some 60.000 feet of sawn timber a day. It was operated by the department’s stores branch and supplied all the Indigenous timber needs for the railways throughout New Zealand. The Are was first noticed at out 2.50 p.m. by two men working at a house some distance away but in dear view of it. The two men. Messrs L. Ericksen and W. Lockwood, rushed to the mill in Mr Ericksen’s car and were able to connect a hose to a standpipe. Their hope of containing the fire was a forlorn one. however, as was that of the mill hands who followed. The Are began in sawdust in the boiler room and as that part of the mill stands facing south with all the mill be T fore it, the southerly wind had tree play. In a remarkably short time the flames were in and under the mill fed by the explosively dry dust which accumulates during milling. Mill men tried to use a hose under the plant, but were defeated by the terrific heat. The fire brigade from Ngongotaha. eight miles away, was called and under the direction of the Rotorua fire chief. Mr W. Clark.

brigadesmen managed to confine the fire to the will building and to prevent damage to a nearby store and garage, and the timber yard. The fire taxed the available water supply to the limit and tonight railway householders were on short supplies of dirty, rusty water as the pumps worked to replenish a hill top reservoir. Employed 53 Men Mr R. C. Turner, the mill superintendent, said the fire affected the livelihood of 53 men, including those who worked in the bush and maintained the bush tramway. The township, on top of the rugged Mamaku range, is dependent on its sawmills and the destruction of the railway mill leaves only one other working. Once eight milts were working in the area.

Mr Turner could not predict whether the mill would be rebuilt, but he said that there were still some 25 to 30 years of cutting in the bush io the south of the town. This is the second time a railway mill has been destroyed by fire at Mamaku. In 1941, the mill, known locally as “The Old State,’’ was burned to the ground. It was not rebuilt, but another was built at Maroa, in the Taupo district. When that

mill cut out, the new railway mill was built at Marnaku in 1950 alongside the railway yards. The department has 31 houses and a 24-man hostel at Mamaku. It is understood that the comptroller of stores, Mr W. G. A. Walker, will visit Mamaku tomorrow.