FIRE ON A STEAMER

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 27, 25 February 1913, Page 8

FIRE ON A STEAMER

OUTBREAK ON THE MATATUA. (BT ''fTEIIGBAIH— PBESS ASSOCIATION.) TIMARU, This Day. At 1.40 this morning a fire was discovered to have broken out in No. 5 hold of the steamer Matatua, which arrived in port yesterday. The ship's fire apparatus was soon fixed in position, and all the .ventilators and air passages were blocked immediately the alarm was given, thus preventing further conflagration. The cargo is composed of hemp, and the cause of the outbreak is afl yet unknown. . Tlie main deck in the proximity of the hatch was very much heated before the extinguisher got to work. The fire is still smouldering., and smoke and steam are ascending. FIRE GOT UNDER.' INSURANCES NOT KNOWN. Later. The fire was got under before noon. The hatches were taken off and the captain of the steamer and two firemen went into the hold. Soon after air got into the hold, bales of flax burst into flames, but water was poured on them, and the smoking bales were hoisted on to, the wharf, where water was again poured on them. By the united efforts of water, chemicals, and steam, the fire was got under and a serious conflagration averted. As the flax was shipped at Auckland nothing is known here of the insurances or the shippers. The damage is estimated at 'from £8000 to £10,000. The vessel herself is thought to have suffered little. A general average will' be struck, and possibly the flax auctioned here. ■The work of fully unloading No. 5 hold is proceeding.