A GREAT BLAZE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 140, 10 December 1931, Page 10

A GREAT BLAZE

BIG EXPORT STORE

AUCKLAND FIRM'S LOSS

FATAL FALL FROM POLE

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

AUCKLAND, 9th December,

The large grading store of Lichtenstcin and Paykcl, Ltd., exporters, ou tho Great South road, adjoining tho Pcnroso overhead railway bridge, was completely destroyed by fire early touight. Stocks consisting of kauri gum, skins, hides, and pelt 3 valued at about £21,000, and plant valued at about £.1000, were a total loss. Tho building itself was valued at £7000. The fire also caused tho loss of a life. The building was a one-storied one of wood and corrugated iron, and covered an area of 30,000 square feet. The flames had spread almost throughout the building by the time tho fire brigades arrived, only a few minutes after they had been informed. The position from the start was a hopeless one, and the first move by tho firemen was to run a lead of hoae to the works of the Australian Glass Manufacturers Co., Ltd., nearby. The side of tho burning building facing the glassworks soon collapsed inward, and v little later tho wall on the Great South road side fell. Fortunately the wind was blowing from the west, carrying the sparks away from the glassworks and across a large vacant space between the store and the Pcnrose substation. The heat was terrific, the hose having to bo played on the glassworks for a considerable time before the building, of corrugated iron, was out of danger. In a remarkably short time the store was reduced to a tangled mass of burning wreckage. Kauri gum, spread over a large portion of tho building on the Great South road side for grading purposes, burned fiercely, and the firemen could do little more than play hoses on the power poles. The cause of the fire is unknown. Twelve men were employed, it being practically the busiest time of tho year. The men finished work at about 5.45 p.m. and left the building about a, quarter of an hour later. There were no fires or furnaces in tho building. LINESMAN LOSES LIFE. An employee of tho Auckland Electric Power Board, Thomas "Whitford Knox, received fatal injuries during the efforts by tho board's staff to cut off the power in the vicinity of the fire. Mr. Knox, who was a married man, 31 years old, resident at Epsom, was working with a companion linesman on the transformer standard outside the Penroso Post Office when ho received a shock as he- was cutting out a switch. The shock caused Mr. Knox to fall from the platform, and he struck tho pavement head first, fracturing his skull. He died within two hours of his admission to hospital. Mr. Knox leaves two children, both under five years of age. Mr. Paykel states that although the building, stocks, and plant were insured, the loss will bo heavy. The insurances are with the Hartford Fire Insurance Co., Ltd. A GRAND SPECTACLE. Fully 5000 people assembled in_ the vicinity, scores of motor-cars arriving from the direction of Otahuhu, and there was a steady stream of vehicular and pedestrian traffic for several hours from the Great' South road tram terminus. Dense clouds of smoko wero visible from elevated parts of the city, attracting notice all over Auckland. The flames were driven by the wind away from the Great South road, but tho slightest slackening of the breezo caused the spectators in the roadway to retreat from the heat. Considerable difficulty was experienced in regulating the traffic on the Penrose Kailway Bridge and on the Great South road immediately below and in front of the burning premises. At the rear of the premises many fires broke ont in the bracken, bramble, and dry grass on tho waste area. Under the steady wind the outbreaks spread quickly, and fires were burning as much as a quarter of a mile away. The wind was in tho direction of the Penrose power sub-station, but there was no serious danger, as the fires burned away quickly, and there wero several scoria walls across the field. At nightfall the neighbourhood was vividly lighted by the conflagration. The crowd was absorbed in every activity of the firemen- and tre efforts of the repair staff from the Auckland Electric Power Board. One man ascended a pole standing at the corner of the Great South road and M'Nab street and disconnected a switch with flames roaring only a few yards away. The firemen were concerned chiefly with confining the flames to the limits of the warehouse site. All that remained of tho buildings afterwards were sheets of corrugated iron, twisted by the heat. The stocks in store were fairly large, arrangements having been made for largo shipments of kauri gum abroad by tho lonic and Sonoma on Saturday. A shipment of skins was also to have been made shortly.