FIRE AT MUSEUM

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 49, 26 August 1921, Page 8

FIRE AT MUSEUM

■„ . . —~~" - < NO SERIOUS DAMAGE DONE.

An outbreak of fire was discovered in the entomological room at the 1 Dominion Museum at half-past twelve to-day, but, fortunately, a lead of water was quickly played on the blaze, anil there was little for the' Fire Brigade to do when it arrived a few minutes later. The blaze was practically confined to one corner of the, room, aud as far as is known nothing but comparatively trifling, damage, considering'what might have, happened had the fire obtained a hold, was done. A few cases "were charred, ■'- but records and papers in' that corner of ' the room suffered considerably. Most of those records, happily, were qopics, . but there is still some doubt as to whether' certain papers relating to the Macquarrie Islands were destroyed- or not. Just how the fire originated is not _ clear, but it is thought that the noonday sun, pouring in through the northern windows, was caught by a' laboratory i flask or bottle and concentrated, as through a lens, on to a pile of papers. . The Museum has a staff of scientific men, and they intend to seek about for the cause of the fire in a scientific manner, ' chiefly by leaving the room as it is till the noonday sun strikes in again.

A member of the staff was occupied in the room up to 12.20 p.m., and ten minutes afterwards, when the alarm was given by another member, the records were in a blaze.

This is the first outbreak of fir« in the Museum, and though it was not attended by serious t results, it points a finger., of warning to the great danger— *' the egregious folly," as one official put it—of housing valuable articles and' records in an old wooden building. The Museum does not even boast a strongroom, though several iron safes are'provided. It is very doubtful whether those safes would stand up to a big fire. " Neither safes nor strong-rooms offer the solution," The Post reporter was told.', " Wellington should have a modern fire-proof museum building."