SERIOUS EXPLOSION. FIRE ON THE MELVILLE ISLAND

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 27, 31 July 1907, Page 7

SERIOUS EXPLOSION. FIRE ON THE MELVILLE ISLAND

THE VESSEL DAMAGED* ' The whole of the harbour frdn|;' wai brilliantly lit up last night, shortly after 7.15 o'clock, as- the result' of «■ great outburst of flames -from th© hold iof the ship Melville Island, which has just completed the discharge, at the railway wharf, Wellington, of a carga of creosote consigned to the New Zealand Railway Department. A., Harbour Board nightwatchtnan heard an explosion at the time stated, and immediately afterwards he saw a column of srno'ke ascending from the after hatch of- the vessel. Ho rung an alarm to themuiji?cipal fire brigade, and in response to "it a motor engine and a steamer were d»apatched and arrived at the 'whais a few minutes afterwards, but the flames - had then subsided. P,cn,diug the brigade's arrival excellent work had been done with an emergency hose worked by two Harbour Board tmi; ployees (Messrs. H. Tamm and L. Daf1 dorf ), assisted by Messrs. R. Cash'mia and H. Goppy, who stood close to.-tn» pungent flames aad directed "water trn to the burning sails and into tile KoloL EXTENT OF THE OUTBREAK;,' The ' seriousness of the situation may be gauged by the fact that the fism* ascended in one wide sheet from the ! hold <o the mizzen crosstrees, destroying the crossjack and the niiZzen lower topsail. Below it raged from stem to Etern of the empty vessel, a« testified to this morning by blackened prank's and beams throughout the vessel* length. But though all tho fittings helow were saturated with the highly inflammablo oil, and the dunnage in the hold was in like condition, theore is scarcely a charred Eurfaco to be seen below, though considerable damage hai been occasioned above> deck. EXPLOSION, 'PURE AND SIMPLE. In conversation with Captain Hugo, Superintendent af the Wellington; Kr» Brigade- the Post representative elicited tho information that the occur^fcace on the vessel was an explosion, -pure and simple, and tbo escape- of the hold from bnrning was attributable to tho ' fact of the highly pungent, dense smoUe from the creosote smothering tho flames below in an instant. Smoke and gas from creosote, said Superintendent Hugo, is nearly as effective as an 'extinguisher of fire as the dioxide of sulphur machines with which many vessels are- now fitted for fir.& extinguishii^ purposes. After too flames had died down from above deck, 5 SujpL Hugo ordered the holds to- bo closed for two nours, so that risk of renewed outbreak" would be avoided. , A^ei* th3t period had elapsed they Were removed, so that any iurth&r gas generttions could escape. 'Xho damage dona to the sails* and mizzen-mast of ' the vessel is considerable, the. mast being charred for nearly, half -of ■ its '^"(otai length, while the sails are burned'threugb in m?,ay places, and scorched over' then* whole area. Tho Melville Island i* well-known irj New Zealand, she having sailed out of various ports in this country. ladeu, through a long course of -years L before ill* advent of the cargo .steamers practically monopolised ' the tfkdtj 1 ; in that branch of export*. She was built at Port Glasgow m 1884, and is", still owned in tbat city by Staart /Brothers. Whan the tire beil rang b,ut ißstiiight hpv captain was" ashore.,'... with -sou« friend?. Speaking' to our tepve-ientaiiyo to-dsry he said he could foim na-t&Qpty ■other" than a tponta»eous explosion "to account for the fire., for when tne fcatijhes were put on every thing, was. in' tfrctinary condition. An inspection, of. the vessel, with ths intan'.ioti oi ascertaining ' Uie extent of th:> dannge, is being rnauo by Captain Bendall this morning on behalf | of th«> underwriters.