THEATRE DESTROYED

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 71, 21 September 1937, Page 10

THEATRE DESTROYED

DELIBERATE ACT

A TIMED EXPLOSION

WATER SUPPLY CUT OFF

(From "The PostV Representative.) SYDNEY, September 17.

Gangster methods were used in the destruction by explosion and fire of a picture theatre at Blayney (New South. Wales), causing damage of more than £.6000. Before the explosion, pressure valves at the town reservoir were deliberately, cut off, giving the firemen no chance of saving the building. • Four anonymous letters were received by the proprietor a month ago, shortly before -the official opening of the theatre, threatening him with violent personal injury. In these, sinister threats were made.

Detectives found definite evidence that the floor of the theatre had been saturated with benzine, and the vapour exploded with r time fuse or a patent sparking device. After pulling the wreckage apart, detectives found eight benzine tins, six under the seating of the front stalls, and two under the stage. . ' .

The explosion wrecked the entire building. The walls collapsed outwards, and several tons of roofing crashed into the centre of the theatre. A fierce blaze, which enveloped the building in a few seconds, reduced the theatre to a heap of smoking ruins. Forced, because of deliberate interference with the town water supply, to use a brigade pump to get water out of the main, firemen waged a hopeless fight against the fierce blaze which followed. What little of the floor remained unburnt was saturated with benzine.

In the soft earth around the theatre the tracks of two men were traced from the bank of the building fo a side door, which had been forced open, arid plaster casts were made of them. The proprietor, Mr. Patrick Donnelly, had kept the four- anonymous letters he had received. He handed them to detectives. "I did not take the threats seriously," Mr. Donnelly said, "but the writer has now made it clear that he meant businessl"

Detectives do not attribute the letters to a maniac. They say they have unearthed a motive for the outrage, and the letters conform to a line of investigation on which they are concentrating.

Suspicions of firemen at the unusual lowness of the water pressure at the time of the fire prompted a visit to the reservoir, half a mile outside the township. Detectives found that the pressure valves had been tampered with, a wrench having been used to cut them. The explosion was timed for 3 a.m.—the only period each morning when the theatre was temporarily unguarded. At that time the nightwatchman is at the railway station directing mail train arrivals to tea rooms and hotels.