MYSTERIOUS FIRES

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 53, 26 November 1929, Page 12

MYSTERIOUS FIRES

TWO MOTOR-CARS IN FLAMES NO SIGN OF OCCUPANTS Dominion Special Service. Auc/cZaad, November 25. Two more cars have been added to the already long list of abandoned and burned machines which have been reported recgitiy. There is a good deal of mystery about the discovery of the vehicles, which were both found blazing by Captain G. J. Bradley, of the Papatoetoe Fire Brigade, at Panmure, late on Saturday night. Only the charred framework remains. Both fires broke out between eleven o’clock and midnight. Captain Bradley was motoring along the PanmureKohimarama road towards Kohi, when he found the first car in flames opposite the spot where Elsie Walker was found dead. It was a five-seater touring model belonging to Mr. E. Robinson,, of Park Road. Mr. Bradley strove hard to put the fire out, but the flames were raging, and in the end all that he could do was to let it burn. About 25 minutes later Mr. Bradley was on the way back from Kohi, driving along the same road. Across the paddocks to westward he saw a reflection in the sky. Driving round the Auckland side of Mount Wellington, he found a three-seater car with flames leaping from all parts. Again he was helpless, and could only watch it blaze. The car had been driven about a mile from the main road in a deserted district.

A strange feature of the fires is the fact that nobody was seen anywhere near the cars. Mr. Bradley says that when he came upon ■ the first blazing car, there was not a soul in sight. The three-seater car must have caught fire only a few minutes before he saw it, but when he arrived nobody was about.