SMOKE HAMPERS FIREMEN

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 89, 9 January 1942, Page 6

SMOKE HAMPERS FIREMEN

Wellington Outbreak BRIGADE’S AWKWARD TASK A lire which Ivas unusual for <the volumes of dense smoke it produced broke out in premises occupied by the Rotary Press, Limited, Tory Street, Wellington, at about 7.15 last evening, and gave firemen three-quarters of an hour’s hard work before it was brought under control. The efforts of the brigadesmen were hampered greatly by the choking smoke, which poured out of the windows as the men smashed them in to bring their hoses to bear on the seat of the outbreak, and though the building was only of three stories the firemen at the 'top-floor windows were frequently completely hidden from the crowd in the street below. Everts smoke masks were of little avail to the men.

The fire was first;, noticed By Mr. L. N. Matthews, who was working in the building. He immediately informed his employer, Mr. Frank Fullerton, who rang the Central Fire Station at 7.20 p.m. Mr. Fullerton, who was also working late, Is one of the three directors of Rotary Press, Ltd., waxing specialists, who occupy the part of the building where the outbreak occurred. Nine machines turned out to the call, three pumps, a ladder, and a salvage van from the central station, and one machine each from the Brooklyn, Constable Street and Thorndon stations. The fire had started in some waxed paper at the back of the ground floor, but quickly spread across to the Utt well, and so right up to an attic in the roof of the building. Two leads of hose ivere run in through the vehicle entrance to the building, but the waxed paper gave off such volumes of smoke that the men could see little. Then the fire, which by the amount of smoke appeared to have seized the entire top floor, was attacked through the front top floor windows, and from the back of the building. Firemen’s Difficulties.

It was at this stage that the men working at the front windows were hidden by the smoke, and the crowd of between 1000 and 2000, which had -athered, could fully appreciate the difficulties they were working under. Conditions at the back of the building were easier for the men could work from the roof of Avery Motors, Ltd.’s building. The next move was to get at the fire through the roof. From Jessie Street two firemen could be seen tearing off sheets of corrugated iron with this purpose, but later investigation showed that the fire must have nearly burst through the roof of its own accord. Once this opening was made in the roof th'e smoke from the windows through which the hoses were being played lessened considerably. This was (because the chief location of the fire in the top of the building was in the attic, and the smoke could then escape straight out the roof. The attic appeared to have been used for storing various materials, which added its bit to the smoke created by the waxed paper. , A feature of the fire was that only near the beginning could any flames, or glow of flames,; be seen from the streets about the building., If there was a blaze of any size it was effectively obscured by the smoke. A sidelight was the action of members of the E.P.S. working in Avery Motors, Ltd.’s,, premises, next dooiv First they shifted all cars back from the area where anything was likely to fall from the burning building through the roof, then they transported thousand and shovels, and bucket pump on to the tar-coated roof, ready to put out any fire started there by flying embers. They were not called upon to do this, but'this assisted the firemen on the hoses. I

Except for water damage, the contents of the building affected most were those at the back of the ground floor, and in the attic and pact of the top floor.