MAGAZINE ABLAZE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 50, 28 February 1945, Page 7

MAGAZINE ABLAZE

THE AREA EVACUATED

PA. CHRISTCHURCH, February 27. For nearly three hours this evening fire raged in an ammunition shelter at. an Army magazine somewhere in Canterbury. Anti-aircraft shells ex- ; ploded at intervals with sounds like; sharp claps of thunder and flashes from the explosions could be seen by residents in a township 1? miles away. When the fire began shortly after seven o'clock, the guards at the magazine took the precaution of evacuating ten people living in houses nearby. The electric power to the magazine was cut off and a guard was placed at a point several miles away on the road leading to the buildings. The magazine, which is built of brick, stands in a gully off the road four miles away from another township. It is used for the storage of gun ammunition. In the magazine area are wooden shelters surrounded by earth-. works which are used for the temporary storage of ammunition till it can be taken into the magazine. ':

The fire started' in one of these shelters, which' contained anti-aircraft shells. One of the > seven guards at the magazine saw the building burst into flames. Nothing could be done to extinguish the blaze, and once the flames had gained a hold the guards could not -get near the shelter, and were forced to leave the magazine

area; '•*■' v- "-._•!..>-»-■ ;-n*. I Residents'.at" <U: third township six miles away from the magazine at- first mistook the explosion of the shells for thunder, but soon they saw the sky lit up by vivid flashes. At the beginning there were only a few explosions, but they increased in number as the fire gained a greater hold, and by nine o'clock there were three or four at a time:' By 10 o'clock the greater part of the ammunition had been destroyed and' there were only z occasional expiOSipns.,: } i.» i, . ~. ■„, *„j iy \ . ', I •, The outbreak was reported to the Army authorities in Christchurch,;' and the officer in charge of the-magazine left this evening for the scene.