Four Fires At Base

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31677, 13 May 1968, Page 22

Four Fires At Base

(N.Z. Press Association) BLENHEIM, May 12. The police are investigating four fires which broke oat at the R.N.Z.A.F. base, Woodbourne, on Saturday night The worst of the fires, the last gutted a wooden barrack block which accommodated 60 men. Some servicemen who were on leave returned io find that they had lost their personal possessions and

kit. Others on base snatched most of their belongings before escaping from the blazing building. When the alarm was raised the base fire sectiwi was mopping up after a fire in the airwomen’s quarters and two others in a nearby men’s dormitory block. An urgent request was made to the Blenheim Volunteer Fire Brigade for assistance. When firemen arrived, the barrack block

was blazing almost from end to end. Brigadesmen saved an adjoining wing. However, bathrooms and storerooms off a corridor which joined the two wings were damaged and some water and smoke got into the living quarters. The servicemen whose quarters were destroyed were accommodated I" other parts of the base and some slept in the theatre building.