FIRE IN FACTORY

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 230, 26 June 1935, Page 10

FIRE IN FACTORY

Serious Damage at Upton and Shearer’s MOTOR-LORRY DESTROYED Fire was discovered in the joinery factory of Messrs. Upton and Shearer, 2-4 Belfast Street, opposite the .Basin Reserve at 11.50 o’clock last night by Constable S. Best, of the Mount Cook police station, who was patrolling his beat. The fire already had a good hold throughout the building, a two storied concrete structure, housing a considerable quantity of building timber. A lorry, garaged there, was destroyed, and the building itself severely damaged before the outbreak was extinguished. It appeared ythat the lire brigade, which attended promptly, had some difficulty In obtaining sufficient water to cope with the tire, and the flames quickly burst through the windows, lighting up the street vividly. Hundreds of spectators assembled within a few minutes. Before long, however, the brigadosmen, led by Superintendent C. A. 'Woolley, brought extra leads into operation, and by 0.15 a.tn. had the fire well under control. Chemical extinguishers were then brought into use to supplement the hoses. There was a dead calm at the time, otherwise the neighbouring house on the south side, wooden and separated from the burned building only by-a narrow asphalt pathway, would certainly have caught alight. The watching crowd was greatly amused when u man and woman who had been viewing the efforfs of the firefighters from the security of the rear upper window of the house on the northerly side of the factory were caught by the full burst of a hose as it darted pit some burning rafters. The principals of the firm, which is an old-established one, are Messrs. William J. Upton, W. George Shearer and Stanley G. Shearer, the last-named being a member of the Eastbourne Borough Council.