FIRE ON STEAMER

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 51, 23 November 1928, Page 3

FIRE ON STEAMER

WORK OF INCENDIARY? Dojjinion Special Service. Auckland, November 22. A- fire occurred, in the chart room of the Steamer Woolgar at the King’s Wharf shortly after midnight. The cause of the Are is not known, but it is thought It may have been due to incendiarism.

-.Dense smoke arid the crackling of flames awakened Captain J. . McLeod and the wireless operator, who were sleeping In cabins on the bridge deck. The flames were soon subdued with a patent fire extinguisher by Mr. J. R. Blythe, the chief officer. After the smoke had cleared away it was seen that the fire had been caused by a quantity of kerosene-satur-ated waste which had been placed just inside the chart-room door and set alight. Flames from the burning waste had blistered the paint of the door and the end of a cushion on a settee was burned. The panelling in the room was also blackened by smoke; no other damage was done.

The matter was placed in the hands of the police, but no arrests were made. The vessel sailed for Waikokopu this afternoon. The chart room is situated beside the captain’s cabin, from which it is separated by a wooden bulkhead. There are. two approaches to the chartroom, one from the bridge deck and the other by means of a stairway leading from the main deck. The person who started the Are is thought to have approached the chart-room by way of the"stairway, as in that case there was less chance of him being discovered in the act by the watchman at .the gangway-