FIRE AT HATCHERY

Evening Star, Issue 26011, 28 January 1947, Page 4

FIRE AT HATCHERY

ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY’S LOSS PHEASANTS & BUCKS INCINERATED Pheasant chicks and Mallard ducks being reared at the Otago Acclimatisation Society’s hatcheries at Waitati were incinerated in a fire that razed three brooding hofises early yesterday morning. The loss of the game was a blow to the society, and it followed on another misfortune last Friday, when the fracturing of a large outlet pipe leading through one of the ponds resulted in the escape of 16,000 brown trout fry into a stream. , The cause of the fire is unknown, but two electric brooders were operating throughout the night in order to keep the chicks warm. When it was first noticed, at 5.30 a.m. by the curator of the hatcheries, Mr W. Claringbold, the fire had a firm hold, and it quickly swept through the wooden structure. With his two assistants, the curator concentrated on confining the area of the blaze and keeping it from spreading to the adjacent brooder houses. Buckets of water were used, and chicks in these houses were removed to pens at the end of the structure. Mr Claringbold this morning paid a tribute to the work of his assistants, and said that had it not been for their prompt .action and difficult work in the blistering heat the damage would have been more extensive.

There were 200 pheasant chicks, about six weeks old, and 30 Mallard ducks, imported several years ago, in the brooding houses, and evidently they were suffocated, no noise being heard as the flames spread. The brooding houses were erected in 1938, and stored in them were mash and pollard and also 25 bags of wheat, six of which were salvaged in a damaged condition. Several rolls of -wire netting, which is difficult to obtain, were also lost. This material is used for trapping fish in the. hatcheries. The building and the chicks were covered by insurance. An air lock or an accumulation of gases is thought to have been responsible for the bursting of a 9in glazed pipe leading through one of the ponds. The pipe was fractured in three places, allowing the water from one pond to overflow into the adjacent one and resulting in the escape of the trout fry, only 200 being saved.