Records destroyed

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33959, 27 September 1975, Page 2

Records destroyed

Valuable school records going back to 1908 were destroyed when fire gutted two rooms in the administration block of the North Linwood Primary School in Woodham Road, early yesterday morning.

Christchurch detectives had no lead by last evening on the cause of the fire, which they described as “highly suspicious.”

The school’s 600 pupils had an unscheduled day off yesterday as a result of the blaze, but classes were expected to resume as usual on Monday, said the headmaster (Mr E. A. Arbuckle). The school had been closed because the fire had destroyed a switchboard which controlled classroom heating, he said. Preliminary estimates yesterday put the cost of

the damage at about $20,000. Apart from the school records, the fire destroyed a cassette taperecorder, duplicating equipment, a record-player, records, and other electronic equipment. The police said that burglars had ransacked the administration block before starting fires in two places—the headmaster’s office and a duplicating room.

About 4 a.m., flames and smoke were seen by a woman neighbour, who called the fire brigade. Two engines from the Christchurch central and Woolston stations managed to control the blaze before it spread to the nearby main classroom block.

Damage was confined to two rooms of the administration block—which was

due to be extended and improved soon.