Detonations And Huge Fire In Explosives Store

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31802, 5 October 1968, Page 14

Detonations And Huge Fire In Explosives Store

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, October 5. A series of heavy explosions heard over a 10-mile radius shook Auckland city late last night as explosives stored in the Colonial Ammunition Company, Ltd, property in Normandy Road, Mount Eden, caused a spectacular fire.

Within minutes of the initial explosion, flames from the site of the explosives quarry were shooting hundreds Of feet into the air. The shock of the detonation and the tongues of flame were felt and seen as far afield as North Te Atatu, Takapuna, and Glendowle. The shock Waves were felt particularly In the Orakei area, where dozens of residents were awakened from sleep. There were no early reports of casualties, but a company official who was quickly on the scene told reporters: “This fire is more than coincidental.” Hundreds of cars jammed the roads around the area

within minutes of the first alarm being given. Motorists homeward bound across the Newmarket flyover stopped their cars, and watched the blaze from the motorway. The fire and explosions were confined to an explos-

Ives store in a quarry at the rear of the factory in Normanby Road. An all-station call was sent to all Auckland fire stations —as the factory adjoins -the timber yard and factory of Henderson and Pollard, Ltd, the largest timber yard in Auckland. Last night’s fire was the second on the Colonial Ammunition Company’s property within a week. Last Saturday, a mystery fire broke out in a store used for storing cosmetic cases. “This bang and the way it shook the house left any earthquake for dead,” said Mr B. S. Hedges, aged 21, who lives in Barnett Crescent, in a house nearest to the explosion site.