Car Destroyed In Garage Fire

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31090, 20 June 1966, Page 14

Car Destroyed In Garage Fire

A car was destroyed in a fire which broke out in a garage at the property of Mr E. Hellier, 13 Ascot avenue, last evening. The weatherboard garage and a wooden fence were also destroyed, and a woodshed was damaged. Two engines from New Brighton and one from headquarters were called to the fire at 7.55 p.m.

Three units from the Christchurch station and one from the Sydenham station answered a call to a fire at the United Service Hotel at 3.48 p.m. yesterday. A tarpaulin, suspended between the fire escapes on the second floor, had caught fire. The brigade received two calls from street alarm boxes and several telephone calls.

Constable I. J. Richan extinguished the flames by stamping on the tarpaulin. Christchurch City Council traffic officers diverted traffic at the northern and southern Colombo street entrances to Cathedral square. Mr J. Roche, of Poulsen street, said he was sitting on a seat near the Godley statue when he saw the smoke and flames. He ran to the alarm at the Christchurch Transport Board’s northern shelter in the square, took off his shoe and smashed the glass.

Someone also broke the alarm in the Government Life building and this set off a warning bell on the side of the building. The tarpaulin had been strung up to act as a windbreak for workmen using welding torches, but they were not working yesterday. It is believed that the fire might have been started by a photographer, who was filming the annual St. John Ambulance parade, dropping a cigarette butt, or by a cigarette butt being thrown out of one of the hotel windows. “From the number of calls

we received it seemed as if the whole of the square was on fire.” said an officer of the fire brigade Two units from the Sydenham station and one from the Central station answered a call given by the automatic fire alarm system on the premises of Lane Walker Rudkin. Ltd., in Durham street at 12.41a.m. on Saturday. The fire was caused by the overheating of an electric motor in the ventilator system. The blaze was extinguished by the firm’s sprinkler system before the firemen arrived. One unit from the St. Albans station went to a chimney fire at the home of Rangi Ellison, 89 Sherbourne street at 5.25 p.m. At 2.42 p.m. yesterday a unit from the Sockburn station was called to a small fire in a bach on the property of O. T. Thomas. 6 Trevor street. The flames were extinguished by neighbours before the brigade arrived. Two units from the Sydenham station attended a chimney fire at the residence of lan Stevens, 9 Milton street, at 4.20 p.m. A rubbish fire on the property of Mrs E. Buchanan, Clifton terrace extension, was extinguished by units from the Sumner and Woolston stations at 5.57 p.m. One unit from the Central station attended a chimney fire at the home of James Drury, 33 Saxon street, at 17.15 p.m.