FIRE AT AUCKLAND

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 December 1934, Page 3

FIRE AT AUCKLAND

TIMBER FACTORY DESTROYED. [per press ASSOCIATION.] AUCKLAND, December 2. Damage estimated at between £16,0(10 ami £17.000 was caused when a lire destroyed the main building and plant of the Morningside Timber Company, Ltd., at Morningside, on Saturday afternoon. Sixty firemen, representing five fire brigades, battled strenuously in tierce heal to quell the flames. A tall column of black smoke was seen for many miles. Between twenty and thirty firemen mid volunteer helpers were treated for superficial burns and cuts by members of the St. John Ambulance Brigade. While flames were licking at the front wall of the office building, the .secretary of the company, Mr B. E. Morrise. broke and climbed through a back window and removed the company’s books to safety. Of the 35 or 40 men employed by the Timber Company, about one half will be affected in their employment. The company’s joinery factory, which is opposite to the destroyed main building, was not affected by the outbreak. A large quantity of timber stacked in the open, escaped serious damage. Stacks of timber near the main buildings, however, were ignited by sparks, and others were scorched.

The flames spread with lightning rapidity beneath and through the main building, which became an inferno in an incredibly short space of time. The burning building which was made mainly of iron and wood, contained a complete, timber milling plant, and a timber dressing plant, and there was a large supply of dressed timber in the racks. It was a sea of leaping flame, and soon collapsed in spectacular fashion, the noise of the falling in n and crackling timber being heard a long way off. In a murk of choking smoke, and scorched by intense heat, the firemen toiled strenuously. Smothered beneath the masses of the fallen building, however, the fire continued to burn vigorously, and several firemen remained on duty in shifts until mid-, day to-day. The- insurance on the building and contents totalled £lO,BOO. held by the New Zealand Insurance Company.