OIL STORE INUNDATED

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 48, 27 February 1911, Page 7

OIL STORE INUNDATED

SPOIL BURSTS THROUGH ROOF. BUILDING AND STOCK SUFFER. DAMAGE ESTIMATED AT, £1500. Saturday night's heavy storm was responsible for serious damage at the Vacuum Oil Company's store on the Hutt-road, to the town side of Kai•warra, and the interior of the building presented an extraordinary scene of confusion this morning. The store consists of three large sections, and is built of concrete and iron, with galvanised iron roof. There is a thick concrete ,wall at the back, and this is also used as a retaining wall against th> hillside. (The section of the building nearest town, —used for the storage of engine-oil— stands some feet away from the slope, but the other two sections are built Tight against the hillside, excavations having been made for the purpose. It was in these sections that the damage •was done. Slush, mud, clay, and loose stones were spread all over the floor, and in a corner against the hillside the 'debris was piled fifteen feet high. This ,was just beneath a hole in. the roof, about seven feet square. Apparently ; the mud, rain- water, and spoil had j poured down in a eataratf from the dopes, over the abandoned railway track (old Manawatu) at the back of the buildings, and ' then on to the roof, which at that spot is in the shape of a broad 1 j ,V. There is a gully leading up the; slopes further back from the stores, and ] a stream of water was coming down j this morning, While the rain was at its height, the torrent had eaten out _ a watercourse, on each side of which debris and clay were- extended. Part of the old Manawatu track, adjoining the ■Vacuum Company's stores, had collapsed, and mingled its volume withthe mass of spoil coming down the*hillside. THE ROOF COLLAPSES. Several hundred' tons of loose material must have poured down the gully and thence to the V-shaped depression on the roof of the oil fctores. Evidently the gutters became choked with the mud and debris, and the weep-holes in th© retaining wall were the only means of escape for this mass of slushy material. As it increased, something had to give, and at last the pressure was too great for the roof. Three or four corrugated iron sheets caved in near the trough (as it were) of the depression, and were accompanied by a cataract of yellow mud, rain-water, and clay, whkh. poured and spread all over the floor and carried part of the iron to th© folding doors facing the Kaiwarra road. Great pressure must have been exerted on the doors from the inside, foi these were found! yesterday to have been broken, and were bulging outwards. ( This necessitated a watch being kept through the night. j STORE COMPARATIVELY CLEAR. ! When the store was left on Saturday, it had been cleared for the reception of 62.000 cases of oils, due to arrive today by the Strathendrick. Other ar- i rangements will now, of course, have to,j be made for the storage of thess. There i was, however, a fairly large quantity of kerosene in the damaged store — about 50,000 cases — aaid these will all have to be removed, in order to prevent further damage. The cases are stored twenty high, and tho lowest layer has suffered by water. Bust v/ill soon eat into a tbin kerosene tin; the kerosene would then flow away, and the lowest cases would be unable to withstand the pressure of the superimposed nineteen — equal to about fifteen hundredweight. If not removed, there is a danger that the stack would collapse. The labour of removal, and the charges for other storage, will in themselves be considerable. LAKE ON HUTT-ROAD: J - J ~"* Just in front of the stores, the Huttroad was a lake of yellow mud this morning. Difficulty was experienced in. finding the culvert, and carts which passed went axle-deep in slush. This threatened to accentuate the difficulty of removing the 50,000 cases. There is a rough detour available for pedestrians or empty carts, but useless for a fullyloaded express or wagon. The liquid mud had passed right " throngb. the stores, oozed on to the road, and there teen more liquified by torrential rain which accumulated on the level. The (•whole vicinity, in fact, was one expanse of mud and liquid clay and mess. ESTIMATED DAMAGE. Mr. Hugh Hamilton, of the ,Vacuum Oil Company, estimates the whole damage to the building and stock at from £1500 to £2000.