SPECTACULAR FIRE

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 143, 14 March 1938, Page 10

SPECTACULAR FIRE

Flames Soar 100 Feet Into The Air SOAPWORKS AT BELFAST By Telegraph—Press Association. Christchurch, March 13. Thousands of pounds worth of damage was done at the works of the Zealandia Soap, Candle and Trading Company, Limited, at Belfast, on Saturday afternoon by a fire which started in the soap department, a brick building about 50 yards square. In a few minutes the block was a furuace. The company has an agreement with the Christchurch Fire Board and, .when the alarm was given, a pumping engine from the central fire station was sent to Belfast. Assisted by a northeast wind, the fire burned merrily; it had a Hying start, through breaking out. in the soap department nea,r five huge vats of soap. When these caught fire, spectators at a distance of 100 yards were forced back by the beat. The blaze broke out in the two-story portion of the brick building and its origin is unknown. As it was Saturday morning, there were no employees working in that particular department, though another portion of the works was in use. The works manager, Mr. J. Rudkin, said he could not estimate the damage beyond saying that it would total many thousands of pounds. The whole of the soap department had been gutted, he remarked. Though the damage was not so great as that caused by a previous fire on the same site in 1933, there was no chance of the firemen doing anything with the burning building, and they concentrated their efforts on saving the adjoining tallow and candle departments and the sandsoap department. Water -to fight, the fire was brought through a quarter-mile lead of hose from a big reservoir at Borth wick’s Freezing Works, supplemented by a small supply in tanks at the soapworks.

In the first half-hour after the tire started, the sight was a most spectacular one and a stream of cars and cycles up the Main North Road carried spectators to the scene. When the fire was at its peak the whole building was a mass of flames 100 feet high, capped by a huge pillar of smoke that was easily visible from Cathedral Square.