Fire at Timaru’s port

Press, 27 May 1981, Page 6

Fire at Timaru’s port

Two firemen were taken to hospital during the fight to control a potentially disastrous blaze at the Caltex Oil depot on the Timaru waterfront last evening. The , fire started in a boiler-house next to an oil drum storage .area in Fraser Street, not far from the depot’s main storage tanks which are a landmark at the port. Firemen were able to contain the blaze in the singlestQrey building. /‘We were lucky that the

weather was calm. The tanks were never really threatened, but it could have been bad,” said Timaru’s chief fire officer (Mr R. G. Carlaw). , t (y/ He said that the fire had started at a ruptured pipe supplying fuel to the boiler, and had quickly spread. 1 / Three engines answered the alarm, which came at 7.15 p.m. No-obc was working in the area at the time, but firemen .- had to move tracks and other

vehicles a safe distance from the fire. Two firemen, who were not wearing breathing apparatus, were overcome as they tried to fight the fire from the roof of the boilerhouse, according to Mr Carlaw. • ../ i... They were treated ‘ at Timaru Hospital and .discharged. ■ Mr Carlaw estimated the damage to the boiler-house at between 10 and 20 per cent. It was not known what had ignited the fuel from the ruptured pipe, he said.