Firecracker causes spectacular blaze

Press, 2 November 1981, Page 1

Firecracker causes spectacular blaze

PA Dunedin A lighted firecracker, thrown into a basket of fireworks, started a fire which destroyed a Dunedin shop and injured two women on Saturday evening. The young women, who were customers in the shop when the fire broke out, were trapped on the first floor of the building and had to jump to safety. One broke a leg, and the other sprained both ankles. Mrs Susan Hou, who was working in the shop with her husband, said that three men entered the shop, bought something, and as they were leaving one of the men lit a firecracker which he threw back into the display he had taken it from. The cracker set off the other fireworks, causing a spectacular display of skyrockets, which smashed through the shop’s windows and into the street. Some of the rockets landed on the roofs of nearby houses.

The fireworks set fire to the shop and Mrs Hou said that by the time she tried to telephone the fire brigade

the telephone connection had been destroyed.

Her husband ran out of the shop and noted the registration number of the car the men were travelling in. The two young women found themselves on the first floor of the building after trying to leave through the back door.

Mrs Hou said she directed them to the door, but she thinks they mistook a door to the upstairs flat, which is near the back door.

By that stage Mrs Hou was unable to get back into the building. People on the street heard the girls’ cries for help from the front windows of the first floor flat and called to them to jump. One man, who tried to get the women out of the building, said that by the time he heard their calls for help, the shop was well ablaze.

“It seemed there was no way to enter the building and we had no idea if the fire had spread to the first floor,” he said.

The noise of igniting fireworks drowned out anything

the people on the street tried to yell to the girls, he said. Eventually the girls jumped, their falls being cushioned bv two men.

Both girls were taken to Dunedin Hospital, where they were treated and discharged. No-one else was in the flat at the time.

Detective Sergeant J. W. Rattray, of the Dunedin C. 1.8., said the incident was being treated as arson. Two men have been spoken to in connection with the incident, and another man is wanted for questioning. A Dunedin Electricity Department pylon cable to Port Chalmers was damaged by the fire, but has since been repaired. The Hous are staying with their two elder sons, who live next to the gutted shop. Most of the possessions have been damaged by smoke and water, if not destroyed by fire.

The shop was covered by insurance, but Mrs Hou believes it may be underinsured. It appeared that all stock and plant were ruined.